Hampshire's Historic Landscape

Historic Landscape Assessment (HLA) seeks to identify and as far as possible understand the historic development of today's landscape. It places emphasis on the contribution that past historic processes make to the character of the landscape as a whole, not just selected 'special sites' and can contribute to a wider landscape assessment. This will help to guide decisions on its future change and management. It is important to ensure that the landscape evolves in a way that leaves it as rich and diverse in the future. The currently available data was based on a rapid countywide exercise to produce broad patterns of historic landscape characters derived from maps and aerial photographs. It was not intended to represent a detailed field by field definition of historic character, but to offer a countywide view.

The Historic Landscape site provides access to the results of a rapid, countrywide assessment of the historic character of the Hampshire landscape which is part of a national progamme of historic landscape characterisation supported by English Heritage.

The historic landscape assessment is map-based, and the full version has been incorporated into the County Council's Geographical Information System (GIS), where it will be used to assist development of environmental policy. The greatly simplified and abbreviated version presented in these pages is designed to

illustrate some of the main characteristics of the system
give a taste of the great diversity of Hampshire's historic environment
indicate how historic landscape character relates to communities in different parts of the county.

The assessment of Hampshire's Historic Landscape was undertaken for Hampshire County Council by the Oxford Archaeological Unit and Scott Wilson Resource Consultants, and was jointly funded by the County Council and English Heritage. This part of Hantsweb was designed and compiled by the Oxford Archaeological Unit.

Project Context - Policies this project has been working under.

Project Methodology - How the project was undertaken.

Hampshire's Historic Landscape Character - The character of Hampshire's landscape.

Historic Landscape Types - Types of landscapes categorized within the project.

Maps of Hampshire Landscape - Images of the wide range of landscape assessed and aerial photographs.

Landscape Change Issues - How you can help with landscape change.

Links Page - A list of pertinent links on the web.

Bibliography - Further reading on the project.

You can explore the site through the main topics listed above. Several of these take you to more detailed levels of information and links to other parts of Hantsweb, and outside to other related web sites.

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