English Heritage has announced the launch of the new National Heritage List for England - a publicly-accessible online database of the country's 400,000 listed properties.

Members of the public can now use the resource and search for heritage sites by locality or by grade of listing, which covers gardens, parks, battlefields, shipwrecks and monuments. It comes as English Heritage confirmed its programme for 2011-12 to 2014-15, which will be guided by the National Heritage Protection Plan to guide the organisation's future work.

Among some of the historic environment agency's priorities over the next four years will be a focus on marine and coastal heritage and 20th century heritage. English Heritage chair Baroness Andrew said: "Our main task is to identify and protect the most significant physical remains of our nation's history and to make them even more accessible.

"For our part, we will be making considerable investment in our major properties which will hugely enhance people's appreciation of these places and their part in our nation's story." Meanwhile, English Heritage has also launched another online resource - Portico - to help boost the public's understanding of English history through its national collection of sites.

The initiative is being piloted with an initial 12 properties, along with a brief overview of 220 lesser-known free sites under the care of the agency. English Heritage curatorial director Dr Anna Keay said: "Portico is the perfect complement to this visit and demonstrates the breadth of the English Heritage estate and the rigour that we apply to increase public understanding of our properties."

Details: www.english-heritage.org.uk Image: Ironbridge – Roantrum