You probably haven’t come across a SHINE (Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England) or HEFER (Historic Environment Farm Environment Record) unless you’ve been to Countryside Stewardship.

Both are relevant to SFI: some SFI actions cannot be performed on historic or archaeological features. On grasslands this severely limits your SFI action selection.

The NFU lobbied Defra and Historic England for changes.

What are the historical or archaeological features?

Historic or archaeological features include:

• undesignated historic or archaeological features (also known as ‘SHINE’ features – Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England)
• registered parks or gardens
• recorded battlefields
• programmed monuments.

Do I need a HEFER?

Assume that you intend to carry out any SFI actions on land that has historic or archaeological features as part of the application process. In this case, you are asked request the SFI Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (SFI HEFER).

You will need a new HEFER for each new SFI application.

HEFER will inform you of known historical or archaeological features and how they affect your SFI application.

If SFI HEFER identifies a Scheduled Monument, you may need to obtain consent from Historic England before carrying out your chosen SFI actions on that land.

If land with historic or archaeological features is not eligible for an SFI action, it only affects the area where the feature is located within a parcel of land. You can apply for the SFI action on the remaining area of ​​the plot of land if it is eligible for the action.

Why are pastures a problem?

Defra’s decisions about which SFI actions can be used on historic or archaeological features are based on assumed land management practices. Most arable shares are eligible for SHINE features because Defra have assumed there is a ploughline.

For pasture shares the choice is restricted as no plow line is assumed.

This means that medicinal plants (CSAM3 £382/ha) and legumes (CNUM2 £102/ha) cannot be applied for historic or archaeological features. The formation of lesions can damage the earthworks. The deep root structure of some species can damage archaeology. Even if a plant or legume is already established on the feature, SFI cannot fund this.

Historic England or the local authority’s environmental advisor cannot give permission for these actions to be used.

What is available in SFI for grasslands with historical and archaeological features?

Actions available include very low input grassland (CLIG3 £151/ha), historic and archaeological features in grassland (HEF6 £55/ha over five years) and winter bird feed (CLIG2 £515/ha). These are not great actions for a productive farming system. Support is also available in SFI for Historic Water Bodies (HEF8), Traditional Farm Buildings (HEF1/HEF2), and Friction Control on Features (HEF5).

What did the NFU do?

The NFU lobbied Defra and Historic England for a better deal for pasture farmers.

Constraints on historical and archaeological features do not recognize more productive grasslands. It should be possible to allow SFI plants and legumes, with guarantees, on grasslands. This could be as simple as a mixture of species used, excluding deep-rooted plants.

The NFU will take Defra and Historic England to the farm to discuss the implications and potential solutions.

Be aware of the regulations

The Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations 2006 may apply at the end of your agreement. If land over 2 ha has been converted to pasture for a period of time and has historic features, it will need a Environmental impact assessment (EIA). the decision to turn those grasslands into arable land. Also, if grassland has become semi-natural during the agreement, again an EIA screening decision from Natural England will be required if you wish to improve productivity or convert to arable. You may need a screening decision to increase productivity on uncultivated or semi-natural land under 2ha if that land is ‘regionally significant’, meaning it has heritage or landscape features of at least regional importance or contains a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This could include land in protected landscapes.

Scheduled monument consent is normally required before any work that will affect a scheduled monument can be carried out. However, certain agricultural works benefit from a “class consent”meaning you can continue agricultural operations that may be harmful to the scheduled monument, such as continued ploughing, but you cannot legally carry out particularly harmful operations, such as deeper ploughing. Class consent is lost if activity has ceased for a period of six years or more and scheduled monument consent would be required before activity could resume.

This is a brief overview of some of the key regulations, but it would be important to take independent advice to understand whether you can legally carry out certain actions on your land.

NFU CallFirst – 0370 845 8458 – can offer free initial advice to NFU members and refer you to an NFU law firm for further advice about your particular circumstances.

Disagree with HEFER?

You can query the SHINE features found on your terrain.

HEFER uses a dataset provided by local Historic Environment Record (HER) offices. Questions should be directed to the local office. Contact details for all English HERs are available at Heritage Gate.

Need more information about SHINE or HEFER?

Following lobbying by the NFU, Defra and Historic England have published a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions about Historic Farm Environment Registration Portal (HEFER). which provides more detail than we can in a short article.