Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Inspector of Ancient Monuments for a fixed-term period, covering a colleague's secondment.

This is a Full Time, 9 months Fixed-Term Contract based in Bristol with hybrid working.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.

What you will be doing

The Development Advice Team provide Historic England’s statutory and non‑statutory advice to our customers, engaging where we add most value to decision‑making through our distinctive contribution as national experts. While the team’s main work will be on development advice, the team will also support the Partnerships Team in the delivery of their work through policy planning and management of the Heritage at Risk programme.

Casework for this role will generally come from the Dorset area, although there may be times when casework is generated from other parts of the South West.

As part of the South West Development Advice Team, you will take delegated responsibility for the delivery of Historic England’s advice on proposals for change in the historic environment (including the marine historic environment) that fall within your area of competence.  You will largely handle casework in Dorset, although there may be times when casework is generated from other parts of the South West. Applying the ethos of ‘constructive conservation’ and making effective use of Historic England’s Conservation Principles in all your advisory work, you will provide advice to owners and others to proactively work towards the sustainable management of the historic environment.

Please note that the role:

• requires regular travel to sites not serviced by public transport.

• requires visiting/inspecting sites which is likely to require climbing scaffolding and negotiating confined spaces (e.g. church roofs).

• will require occasional attendance at community meetings which can be held at evenings or weekends.

Who we are looking for

• Significant experience of managing change to ancient monuments, including through the planning system

• Experience of dealing face-to-face with members of the public

• Good knowledge of the conservation, management and presentation of ancient monuments.

• A good understanding of relevant Government policy, guidance and statutory procedures for the historic environment, including SMC

• Good negotiating and influencing skills

• Ability to deal with pressure and challenge

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Provisional interview dates: 13th June 2025

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –

https://cms.historicengland.org.uk/media/qjpbzlqt/inspector-of-ancient-monuments-bristol.odt