A watermill and shipwrecks are a listed heritage site in England legacy

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A watermill that inspired landscape artist John Constable, an intact Victorian soup kitchen and two shipwrecks from the 16th and 17th centuries are among the Historic Sites listed in England over the past year.

The National Heritage List for Historic England also includes two London taxi shelters as well as World War I training trenches with links to the SAS.

The rubble and slate Combe Gillwatermill in the Lake District, once used to mill corn near Borrowdale, Cumbria, has become an inspiration for many artists, but the most famous was Constable, who produced a pencil and watercolor painting of the mill in 1806.

Also listed is a striking red-brick Arts and Crafts house, rebuilt as a doctor’s surgery in 1887 for the working-class community of Ancoats, Manchester. The Ancoats housed many of those who worked in steam-powered textile mills, with records showing Dr. Thomas Price, medical officer of the ‘Poor Keepers’ – the council that runs the Poor Law Union – originally converted the house into a surgery.

A taxi shelter in Punt Street, Kensington and Chelsea, London. Photo: Chris Redgrave/Historical England Archives, Historic England

Making the list is a 1920s sunken garden at White Lodge, Brighton, commissioned by Victoria Sackville, mother of Vita Sackville-West, and designed by renowned architect Edwin Lutyens. He is joined by two green London cab shelters, one on Pont Street in Kensington and the other on the Chelsea Embankment, reminiscent of the capital’s 19th-century horse-drawn cab trade.

Two 16th- and 17th-century shingle bank wreck sites, NW96 and NW68, off the Isle of Wight, containing many cannons and at least 50 large lead ingots and stone cannonballs, have been granted protected status. The latter ship, believed to be Dutch, may have been associated with the Battle of Portland in 1653 during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

The World War I training trenches, constructed near Docking, Norfolk by the Lovat Scouts, a battalion general from the Scottish Highlands commanded by Lord Lovat, uncle of David Stirling and founder of the SAS, include zigzagging trenches in the front lines to protect against shell blasts.

A 17th-century country house remains in the grounds of Berkhamsted Castle, Hertfordshire, where a 19th-century extension was built and used as a soup kitchen for distributing food to the poor in Victorian times. Although soup kitchens were popular in the Victorian era, few remain in their original form.

An important 18th-century sandstone landmark and troop mustering point on the military road from Newcastle to Carlisle, which played such an important part in the defense of the north, is now almost invisible against an ancient stone garden wall in a new development.

The construction of the Military Road allowed troops to move quickly from the Newcastle garrison, having previously been stuck in Newcastle trying to counter the advance of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Second Jacobite Rising of 1745.

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A “tin tent” of the early 20th century, corrugated iron St Aidan’s Church in Caythorpe, Nottinghamshire, which is still used as a place of worship, has been added to the list. It is considered a good example of these low-cost, quick-to-assemble buildings, which were developed in the mid-Victorian era to serve the rapidly growing industrial towns and cities across England.

The Minister for Heritage, Lord Parkinson, said: “Heritage sites tell the story of our country, promote tourism and help us understand where we live and are proud of. By listing buildings and protecting wreckage, battlefields and monuments, we can protect our history so that future generations can enjoy it too.”

Duncan Wilson, CEO of Historic England, said the variety of menus this year “demonstrates the rich diversity of our shared heritage and the importance of everyday places… that make up the fascinating tapestry of our past”.

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