Historic Landscape Characterisation

article introducing the various schemes of Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) that have been widely adopted by organisations such as Cadw, English Heritage and Historic Scotland, and considering the issue of how the general process of mapping local and regional variation in landscape character can provide information on its origins and development, and how in assessing character there is a need to move beyond simple morphological criteria. Particular attention is paid to forms of evidence that have previously been neglected, notably patterns of landholding and vernacular buildings

the article outlines how and why new tools and approaches for understanding landscape character, intended to inform and involve a wide range of professional disciplines, have developed. As one of these tools, HLC aims to map the character and time-depth of the whole landscape. It is ensuring that the inherited character of the present landscape is taken into account, both at a strategic and site-based level

the paper examines a particular form of regional landscape created by enclosure and the popularisation of foxhunting during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the `shires'. It argues that the characterisation programmes are ill-equipped to recognise cultural processes that have shaped the landscape through the short and medium term and that, as a result, there is a risk of losing local landscape character and diversity. It also questions how characterisation defines and engages with `communities' as demanded by the European Landscape Convention

the paper describes the Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) project in Scotland, which was designed to create a digital map of the origins of the present countryside to enable it to be managed in a comprehensive way for the first time. Before the mid-1990s the only historic element in the landscape other than archaeological sites that was considered in the planning process was designed landscapes, whereas the HLA approach has embraced the whole landscape: urban and rural. In essence the map identifies any land use that has left a mark on the landscape, be it current or relict. The genesis of the project was conservation rather than reconstruction, and the approach is archaeological and evidence-based. The features must be evident on present or past maps or air photographs and as far as possible the interpretation is confirmed by fieldwork. There is no attempt to infer things that cannot be verified, but morphological typology is used as a method of interpretation

the article argues that some of the assumptions which lie at the heart of Historic Landscape Characterisation as a methodology have problems which are causing some concerns among some landscape historians and archaeologists. In addition, there are issues of how the HLC process and its conclusions are being applied within the practices of planning, development control and community action. The argument is for debate among the interested parties before the clear potential of HLC acts not as an agreed modus operandi for all, but as a source of difference and contention

The author responds to Andrew Fleming's comments in `Don't bin your boots!' (Landscapes 8:1 (2007), pages 85--99) on his recent book, Ideas of landscape (Oxford 2006).