Scheduled Monuments are nationally important archaeological sites or historic buildings. Scheduling is the UK’s oldest form of heritage protection, going back to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. The current defining legislation is the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The only scheduled monument in the parish is Handsacre Hall.
Scheduling is the oldest form of heritage protection in the UK and applies only to sites of national importance. Listing is more recent and can be applied to structures which are only significant locally. Listed buildings have to currently exist in something at least resembling their original form. They cannot be completely ruined, or invisible. Scheduled monuments, on the other hand, can be total ruins, and do not even have to be visible – they can be subsurface remains.
A listed building may not be demolished, extended or altered without special permission from the local planning authority. For a building to be included on the list, it must be a man-made structure that survives in something at least approaching its original state. Most structures on the list are buildings, but other structures such as bridges, monuments, sculptures, war memorials, and even milestones and mileposts may also be listed.
There are 20 listed buildings, all classified as Grade II, in the parish.
- No 1, Old Road
- Armitage United Reform Chapel
- Armitage with Handsacre war memorial
- Birchen Fields Farmhouse
- Church Farmhouse
- Church of St. John the Baptist
- Churchyard cross
- Clarke Hayes
- Former farmhouse approximately 20 yards SW of Hood Lane Farmhouse
- Former summer house immediately West of Spode House
- Lodge Cottage
- Marsh Barn Farmhouse
- Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas, Hawkesyard Priory
- Spode House and attached coachhouse, Hawkesyard Priory
- Stonehouse cottages
- The Old Farmhouse Restaurant
- The Old House
- Trent & Mersey canal bridge number 59
- Trent & Mersey canal bridge number 60
- The High Bridge
Scheduled monuments and listed buildings are not the only way of signifying that something is important from a historical point of view. Staffordshire Historic England Records (HER) has over 100 records including the High Bridge, Westfields farm, Lea Cottage, the canal tunnel and more canal bridges, mileposts, particular artefact find locations, both Rugeley power stations and numerous prehistoric barrows. Other records can be found in different databases like Parks and Gardens UK or the Church Heritage Record.
Not everything makes the County or National lists though – the Towers, the Mount, the Methodist Temple in Handsacre, Armitage Cottage and Brickkiln Farm are all missing from the lists. Also missing from the list of course are any buildings that are no longer standing, like Armitage Lodge which was demolished in 1975.