C O N T E X T 1 1 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9 15 DEBORAH MAYS An update on listing in Scotland The listing process needs to move with the times, and to persuade owners, politicians and the wider public of its continuing relevance and value. Political debate and ever more intense media exposure highlight the importance of developing a more confident and robust management of our protected heritage.Without it, we can not be sure that our work will bring the economic, social and environmental benefits that are now expected of the historic environment. Happily, recent studies prove what to many was self-evident, that listing contributes positively to the economy, tourism, sustainability and the critical sense of place which defines and anchors communities. If we are to continue to command respect, however, it is essential that we convey the importance of this contribution to owners, politicians and the public, and that we ensure that they understand the relevance and purpose of the designation. Listing is operationally distinct from scheduling, a fact embedded in current draft legislation1 (currently at consultation) in which the different aspirations of the respective systems are enshrined further. As such, it is quite distinct from the approach in England which, with a comparable aspiration to clarify processes for public consumption, has sought to integrate listing and scheduling into a single procedure within the planning system through the Heritage Protection Review Bill (currently delayed). That said, in order to aid clarity, quality and consistency, the draft Scottish bill also looks at harmonising as far as possible the two distinct management processes. Professor David Walker, long-standing Chief Inspector of Historic Buildings in Scotland, has charted the early history of listing in ‘Listing in Scotland: origins, survey and resurvey’, published in the 1994 Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society (Vol 38). Here he describes, from the revealing perspective of player and observer, the first 40 years of listing, tracing its origin from legislation in the 1930s and tracking the shape of listing in Scotland to around 1990. This stands as an incomparable history of the period, and the timeline highlights the key watersheds. Although the legislation dates from 1947, statutory listing in Scotland began on any scale only from the mid 1960s. The delay was deliberate so that the work could follow a review on the completion of the nationwide survey, begun in 1948 under the guidance of Ian Lindsay. A further delay in making the lists statutory came from the need to log them in the Register of Sasines (the Scottish land register). This was adeptly removed by the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1969, which also made the process more rapid by transferring responsibility for owner notification to the local authorities. So while Scotland’s oldest listing is the Scottish Churches House, Dunblane, listed on 2 April 1957², the majority of listings from the first survey date to around 1970. Hot on their heels came the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 which prompted their revision nationwide. The primary legislation was combined into the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. In the past 20 years, the procedures which bring listing about, the policies which support it and the structure of those who implement it have all evolved to suit swiftly changing circumstances and expectations. The procedures have sought to balance the needs of 1 Historic Environment (Amendment) Scotland Bill, consultative draft, 2009 ² Frank Kelsall, in his lecture to the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain in November 2008, ‘Not as ugly as Stonehenge’, suggests the oldest date of listing in England may be that on 1 August 1946, of Gosfield Hall in Essex. Perth Playhouse
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