Be part of the Missing Pieces Project
Create an account and find a list entry to contribute your first missing piece.
Missing Pieces Project: Add Your Pieces to the Big Picture
All over England are places with stories to tell: from buildings to battlefields, some on your doorstep, others just a day trip away. Their stories are still being written, and they won’t be complete until you share your side.
The Missing Pieces Project invites you to share your pictures and stories of the unique, significant and memorable places on the National Heritage List for England (otherwise known as ‘the List’). The List is a register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites across England.
Your view of a place is as unique as you are, so every snapshot and story you add is an important piece of the picture.
And the more pieces of the picture we have, the better we can work together to protect what makes these places special.
Find places waiting for your perspective
There are over 400,000 listed sites across England to discover, including parks, battlefields, shipwrecks, and buildings of all shapes, sizes and ages, from palaces and parks to pubs, petrol stations, and pigsties.
In England, 99 per cent of us live less than a mile from a listed place – so wherever you live and wherever you travel, you’re bound to find somewhere nearby with a story to tell.
Latest pieces
Discover and share the historic places on your doorstep. Here are some of our favourite recent contributions:
Every piece is important
Whether you have a connection to a place already or you're discovering it for the first time, your views add important new pieces to the picture.
- Images: from phone snaps to scans of vintage photos and architects’ drawings, from wide angles to close-ups
- Stories: from memories of holidays, school trips and family events to information about grand openings and transformations
Photos must be ones you took yourself, from public land or rights of way, or with permission from the landowner. To add an historic image, you must have the rights to it. See the Missing Pieces Project terms and conditions for more information.
Without your missing pieces, we all miss out
No single person or organisation knows the whole story of a place. Everyone who visits a place or lives nearby has their unique piece of the picture.
The more people add to the picture, the more we can all understand what makes these places unique and significant – to individuals, their local communities, and the story of England.
Adding to the Missing Pieces Project:
- Helps other people find places worth visiting, or find out more about places they discover
- Helps councils and other people in power to understand what places mean to people, so they can make better decisions about protecting, preserving, restoring and reusing these unique places
Remembering our first 'super user'
David Lovell was a passionate and prolific contributor to Historic England projects.
He joined Historic England’s team of volunteers about ten years ago, bringing valuable expertise to the Aerofilms Collection of aerial photographs. When the Britain from Above project ended, he kindly and enthusiastically started work on the Missing Pieces Project.
David loved sharing his images and made over 47,000 contributions to list entries. He would often talk about building a community of users and regularly called the office to see how many contributions we had received. His laughter down the phone was earnest, and he genuinely cared about Historic England's work.
When asked why he contributed to the Missing Pieces Project, David once said that it was vital to keep busy in retirement. The fact that he picked our projects to stay busy gives us all an enormous sense of pride in what we do.
From his first batch of contributions in June 2016 to his last in December 2021, the legacy of our first ‘super user’ will not be forgotten. He has provided a wealth of contributions for others to enjoy and build upon.
Gallery
A selection of David's contributions to the Missing Pieces Project can be viewed below. Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.
Highlights
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Historic Pub Walks
Embark on walking routes through the heart of cities across England and whet your thirst for the local heritage surrounding us.
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Listed Lighthouses in England
Explore over 100 lighthouses including everything from a Roman pharos and medieval beacons to the now classic red and white striped structures.
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Eleanor Coade, Pioneer of Coade Stone
Eleanor Coade (1733 to 1821), a pioneering Georgian businesswomen, successfully adapted a secret formula to manufacture an elegant artificial stone.
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20th Century Architects on the Missing Pieces Project
The British Library's audio recordings provide a fascinating way of meeting the people behind the historic places on the National Heritage List for England
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Commemorating D-Day
We partnered with the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth to use objects from their collection to bring people and places of the NHLE to life
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13 Listed Buildings on the District Line
London Transport Museum have enriched all of the listed buildings on the District Line using photographs from their collections.
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Leslie Green, Architect of London Underground
13 Grade II listed London Underground Stations were designed by Leslie Green for the commission of a lifetime.
