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11 : Mapping Lancashire ' s historic landscape : the Lancashire Historic Landscape Characterisation programme

This paper describes and evaluates the background, methodology and successful application of a historic landscape characterisation project undertaken between 1999 and 2000 in Lancashire (NW England). It begins with a description of the need and context for the project, from the perspective of English Heritage as a part of a national programme, from the viewpoint of Lancashire County Council who required the work to inform and underpin a county landscape strategy, and more generally as a critique of existing SMR systems. Some details of the project method will be briefly explored before moving on to outline the numerous applications of work. Finally, two new associated projects will be introduced, one as part of a Europe-wide project, which test and develop the characterisation approach at different scales but within the same broad objectives of improving understanding, communication and the management of the historic environment. Identification of need national context Over the last ten years the historical dimension of the landscape has received increasing recognition in the United Kingdom and in mainland Europe. Both archaeology and history have been identified as important factors in assessing the value of areas of landscape (Countryside Commission 1987; 1993; 1996), and the concept of 'cultural landscapes' has been recognised in a number of European and British initiatives (Fairclough et al. 1999). In September 1991, the UK Government White Paper This Common Inheritance had invited English Heritage to prepare a list of landscapes of historic importance (English Heritage 1991), similar to its Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. The intended purpose of this work was to define areas of landscape deemed to be more 'historic' and, therefore, more worthy of preservation than the surrounding areas. Subsequently English Heritage instigated a number of pilot projects to assess appropriate methodologies for identifying 'historic landscapes' (summarised in Fairclough et al. 1999). The results led to the view that a more holistic approach to historic landscape assessment than that originally envisaged was appropriate, and a fuller understanding that the 'requirements for historic landscape conservation would not be met by a selective register' (Fairclough 1994 p.35). This more holistic approach would characterise all areas within the landscape with reference to agreed criteria, and not concentrate on the identification of key 'historic landscapes'. Further grading, in terms of the relative importance of different parts of the landscape, would only be undertaken to meet the needs of specific planning or conservation-led enquiries. Such an approach, in which the whole of an area of landscape is assessed and characterised, is in line with methodologies of landscape assessment undertaken for non-historical reasons. The general purpose of these has been defined by the Countryside Agency (Countryside Commission 1993; 1998; Countryside Agency 1999) as Fig. 11.1: Lancashire.