C O N T E X T 1 2 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 13 Chris Daniell The Ministry of Defence historic estate Managing the Ministry of Defence’s vast landholding, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation looks after an extraordinary range of archaeology, buildings and structures. With around 240,000 hectares of land, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is one of the largest landowners in the country. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) manages this land, which makes up around one per cent of the UK’s landmass, on behalf of the MoD. It is unsurprising that the organisation looks after a huge range of archaeology, buildings and structures. The DIO was formed on 1 April 2011, when the former Defence Estates (DE) organisation was brought together with other property and infrastructure functions within the MoD. This single organisation now looks after a treasure trove of history.The oldest remains are Neanderthal skeletons from caves in Gibraltar and, in England, Mesolithic remains on Salisbury Plain. The great set-pieces of the historic estate include the Georgian dockyards at Portsmouth,Victorian Sandhurst, RAF Cranwell for the 1930s, and the missile sites of the ColdWar, in particular Spadeadam, near Carlisle, which was a testing ground for the short-lived British Blue Streak missile programme. There is a growing interest in the Cold War sites. Some of the most recent listed structures are the ColdWarThor Missile sites at North Luffenham, dating to 1963. As of 1 April 2011 there were 815 listed buildings and 737 scheduled monuments across all MoD sites. There are also nine world heritage sites, seven registered parks and gardens (including Amport House, whose formal gardens were designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll), and six registered battlefields (including Otterburn and Kineton – better known as Edgehill). The number of properties in conservation areas is more difficult to determine as at present there is no national list of conservation areas, but several include entireMoD estates, such as the Haslar Peninsular ConservationArea in Gosport and Woolwich Common Conservation Area, which includes the barracks.The numbers of listed buildings on the estate regularly change,with disposals reducing the number and new listings increasing the number. In 2010–2011 there were 18 new listings on the estate. Tedworth House has been converted to become a recovery centre for Help for Heroes. Amport House and its gardens are listed. The formal gardens were designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll.
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