A 157-page audit by Historic England, the public body responsible for preserving buildings and monuments, has identified hundreds of sites around Britain with links to the slave trade, including schools, farms, pubs and gravestones. The list includes halls, churches and entire villages have been linked to the “transatlantic slavery economy”.
The research “identified the tangible presence of England’s slavery past in buildings, houses, streets, industrial heritage, urban fabrics and rural landscapes”. The report states: “The transatlantic slavery economy was invested in the built environment of the local area in housing, civic society organisations, churches, village halls, farms, shooting lodges, hotels.” As an example, Nunnington in North Yorkshire has been included because a slaver built a school and houses there.
Completed last summer, just after the toppling of statue of Edward Colston, the report is more comprehensive than the National Trust review limited to stately homes, but still does not address all “tombs, monuments and memorials of individuals and families made wealthy from associations with the Atlantic slave economy”
Historic England said the audit would “identify significant gaps in knowledge that can be targeted … to produce a more complete picture of the impact of Atlantic slavery on the built environment in England”
Conservative MP Nigel Mills has accused the report of being a “Waste of time”, claiming: “What happened hundreds of years ago was wrong. But we don’t need to constantly berate ourselves for it.”
