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Historic England MCP Server

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Historic England's National Heritage List for England (NHLE) — search listed buildings and scheduled monuments via the ArcGIS FeatureServer. Query by name, grade, location, or list entry number.

3 tools
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AI Skill
SKILL.md

Domain knowledge for Historic England — workflow patterns, data models, and gotchas for your AI agent.

Historic England — National Heritage List for England

Official register of listed buildings and other designated heritage assets in England, served via ArcGIS FeatureServer.

Data Model

  • ListEntry — Unique integer reference number from the NHLE (e.g. 1000045).
  • Name — Name of the building or heritage asset (e.g. "BUCKINGHAM PALACE").
  • Grade — Listed building grade in descending order of significance: I, II*, II.
  • ListDate — Date the building was added to the statutory list (Unix timestamp in ms).
  • AmendDate — Date of last amendment to the listing.
  • NGR — Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference (e.g. "TQ 29009 79672").
  • Easting/Northing — OS coordinates (British National Grid, EPSG:27700).
  • hyperlink — Link to the full listing entry on historicengland.org.uk.

Grade Distribution

  • Grade I — ~2% of listed buildings. Exceptional interest.
  • Grade II* — ~5.8%. Particularly important, more than special interest.
  • Grade II — ~91.7%. Nationally important and of special interest.

Gotchas

  • Coordinate system: Native data uses British National Grid (EPSG:27700), not WGS84 lat/lon. Use outSR=4326 for lat/lon output.
  • Date fields: ArcGIS returns dates as Unix timestamps in milliseconds.
  • Case sensitivity: Name searches are case-insensitive when using upper(Name) LIKE '%CASTLE%'.
  • Result limit: Default max 2000 features per query. Use resultRecordCount to control.
  • Geometry: Point geometry (centre point of asset, not boundary polygon).

Tools in this Server (3)

He Listed Building Lookup

Look up a specific listed building on the National Heritage List for England by its List Entry Number. Returns name, grade, listing date, grid referen...

He Listed Buildings Nearby

Find listed buildings near a location using OS National Grid coordinates (easting/northing). Use postcodes.io or ordnance_survey tools to convert post...

He Listed Buildings Search

Search Historic England's National Heritage List for England (NHLE) by building name and optional grade. Returns list entry number, name, grade (I, II...

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Historic England MCP server?

Historic England's National Heritage List for England (NHLE) — search listed buildings and scheduled monuments via the ArcGIS FeatureServer. Query by name, grade, location, or list entry number. It provides 3 tools that AI agents can use through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

How do I connect Historic England to my AI agent?

Add the MCPBundles server URL to your MCP client configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, etc.). The URL format is: https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/historic-england. Authentication is handled automatically.

How many tools does Historic England provide?

Historic England provides 3 tools that can be called by AI agents, along with a SKILL.md that gives your AI agent domain knowledge about when and how to use them.

What authentication does Historic England require?

Historic England uses open data APIs — no authentication required.

Setup Instructions

Connect Historic England to any MCP client in minutes

https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/historic-england

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol lets AI tools call external capabilities securely through a single URL. This bundle groups tools behind an MCP endpoint that many clients can use.

Use this bundle in 3 steps

  1. Copy the MCP URL above
  2. Open your AI tool and add a new MCP/connector
  3. Paste the URL and follow any auth prompts

Claude Desktop Users

Skip the manual setup! Use the .mcpb file format for one-click installation. Check the Claude Desktop tab for setup instructions.

Pick your tool tab for exact steps

Select ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code, or another tab for copy-paste config.

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Historic England MCP Server & Skill — 3 Tools