Historic Environment Adviser
| Posting date: | 21 April 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £33,854 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 17 May 2026 |
| Location: | GL16 8BA |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Temporary |
| Job reference: | 458126/1 |
Summary
As the largest land manager in the country, Forestry England oversees a vast and diverse network of more than 1,500 forests and woods, spanning over 250,000 hectares. We often celebrate our landscapes for their natural beauty and ecological significance, yet they also harbour some of England’s most extraordinary historical sites, monuments, and stories. Beneath the leafy canopies and towering trees lies a rich tapestry of human history, preserved and intertwined with the very roots of the land.
The Historic Environment Adviser will lead our work in championing the historic environment, working with our frontline forestry teams across the west and south west of England, to identify, protect and celebrate historic environment features.
The Historic Environment Adviser will inspire others to support our work in growing the future, championing our Forestry England values. Together we are Forestry England, we grow forests for all, for life.
Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.
Where you’ll work…
The postholder will be based at the district office at Bank House, Coleford, Gloucestershire (other Forestry England office locations within the district may be considered).
Key responsibilities & accountabilities
Advocate for the historic environment
- Foster a positive team working relationship between the operational delivery teams, the forest planners and the area ecologists so as to inspire and engage everyone on the historic environment, sharing knowledge, harnessing expertise and building insight and trust. Be open and realistic as to the challenges inherent in the business, promoting transparency and constructive dialogue to achieve positive outcomes.
- Collaborate and build relationships with stakeholders including statutory bodies, NGOs, academic institutions and community groups to support and celebrate the historic environment as an integral part of sustainable forest management. Co ordinating with other team members to ensure consistent messaging and avoiding of duplication of effort.
Forest Planning
- Lead the renewal of Scheduled Ancient Monument plans as part of Forest Plan renewals. Share understanding of the plan and secure the buy-in of the beat forester and their team so that the value and importance of the specific site (or collection of sites) is better understood and thus valued and promoted.
- Support the forest planning team with forest plans renewals incorporating non scheduled heritage features and sharing knowledge and insights with the beat teams who will look after those features.
- Champion the historic environment likely to be associated with ancient woodlands and veteran treescapes to inspire best practice approaches to ancient woodland restoration and veteran trees management. Support training of field staff so they can identify and record potential historic environment features as part of their normal work.
- Commission specific historic environment surveys and research to answer questions pertinent to understanding sites so as to optimise their protection and management in the context of sustainable forest management.
- Update and maintain the historic environment layer in our GIS systems.
Community engagement and communications
- Liaise closely with the communications and marketing team to champion and promote the work undertaken and direction of travel. Identify and support opportunities to engage with the Festival of Archaeology.
- Where appropriate engage communities and volunteers in the survey, monitoring and evaluation of historic environment sites within our woodlands.
- In the Forest of Dean, support the Area Manager with the implementation of the ‘Our Shared Forest – Built Heritage’ plan.
Project Management & Monitoring
- Positively collaborate with finance and business support to maintain clarity on approved expenditure plans and monitoring of spend against delivery.
- Undertake realistic project planning and adherence to existing Forestry England systems and processes to manage project delivery on time and to budget.
- Feed into monitoring and reporting on progress of the Nature Recovery Programme in a timely, transparent and accurate manner.
- Feed into national reporting on historic environment measures and progress.
Historic Environment Projects
- Identify, develop and implement historic environment projects consistent with the emerging strategy, ensuring readiness for funding opportunities and supporting both existing and new initiatives.
- Deliver strategic historic environment monitoring and analysis, contributing to evidence-based decision making and natural capital approaches.
And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.
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