Enquiries to the Surrey Historic Environment Record (HER) are welcome, either by email or online enquiry form. The record is managed by the Historic Environment Planning team and is based at Quadrant Court, Woking.
The HER is a computerised database, as well as a reference library containing a range of publications and unpublished material, which are available for consultation by appointment. Resources available to researchers include:
- The main HER electronic database, allowing rapid searches to be made by geographical area, historical period, types of site or find, and many other criteria.
- Thousands of unpublished archaeological contractors and consultants fieldwork reports (also known as "grey literature").
- Local journals and publications.
- Information on Scheduled Monuments within Surrey.
- Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 maps covering the whole area of Surrey, marked with original Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) locations and areas of archaeological interest, plus copies of other historical maps.
A completed, signed enquiry form must be received by the HER before any request for information can be answered. An online form is available via the link below. Please be as specific as possible about the information you require when completing the form. Up to three supporting files (plans, shapefiles), each of no more than 10MB, can be uploaded as part of completing the form. Any other files should be sent separately via email to her@surreycc.gov.uk; please attach the files directly to the email as the HER is unable to receive zip files and other compressed files.
Submit an HER enquiry request online
There is no charge for using the HER unless the data are being collected for commercial purposes. For public research, educational or personal interest purposes, a charge may be applied in circumstances when the requirement is of a scale that will take members of the HER team more than two hours to complete.
The HER guidelines for users provide more information about the terms and conditions of use of HER data.
Summary versions of most HER data are also available to search online via the Exploring Surrey's Past website. Please note this dataset should not be used for planning-related purposes, and academic or other researchers are also advised to contact the HER for full versions of entries rather than rely on the online summary data.
