During the past few years, the
Gwynedd Archaeological Trust has been involved in work examining
the historic character of areas defined by the Register of Historic
Landscapes in Wales. This is part of an ongoing pan-Wales project
sponsored by Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, Natural
Resources Wales and ICOMOS UK. It is hoped that all the landscapes
in the register will be included in the next year or so.
What is historic landscape
characterisation?
Natural forces and human activity acting together
over the last six thousand years have contributed to produce
a landscape of great beauty and variety in Wales, a national
asset that is essential both to our national identity and to
our individual 'sense of place' and well-being. The diversity
and imprint of human activity on the landscape is everywhere
to be seen, from the enigmatic stone monuments of the prehistoric
period and the magnificent castles and abbeys of the medieval
period, to quite commonplace and typical features like field
boundaries that can often be of great age. But the landscape
is more than just attractive scenery or a record of the past;
it also provides a place for us to live, work and sustain ourselves,
through farming, forestry, tourism and so on, processes that
all shape, and will continue to shape, the landscape.
Recognising and raising awareness of the importance and wealth of the
historic fabric of the landscape has been the central theme and message
of the non-statutory, Register of Landscapes of Historic Interest in
Wales, the first part of which, covering thirty-six 'outstanding' landscapes,
was published in January 1998. This has been compiled as a joint initiative
between Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, Natural
Resources Wales and the International Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS), working in collaboration with the four Welsh Archaeological
Trusts, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments
of Wales and the Welsh unitary authorities. A second volume of the Register,
published in 2001, identifies 22 landscapes considered to be of 'special'
historic interest. These 22 areas are taken to be of national significance
alongside the 36 generally larger areas of outstanding historic interest
identified in the first volume.
The Historic Landscapes Register provides a first step, a national overview
of the historic content of the Welsh landscape. The next step, so essential
to the process of informing the way in which aspects of the historic
landscape may be managed, is to make available more detailed information
about the character of this landscape at a more local level. This is
achieved through a process known as historic landscape characterisation
which has been developed in Wales jointly by Cadw, the CCW and the Welsh
Archaeological Trusts. This involves the identification of geographically
definable and mappable areas of historic character, as determined by
the range and distribution of surviving archaeological and historical
features and the main types of historical land use patterns or historic
'themes' that have shaped the area. The key historic characteristics
of the area are then identified along with recommendations for their
positive management. It is the great depth of human activity which underpins
much of what we feel is important and helps give an area its local distinctiveness.
Historic landscape characterisation is, therefore, an important dimension
of this approach: it sets out to identify and map the physical manifestations
of past human activities which produce much of the character, distinctiveness,
quality and diversity which we value in our present-day landscapes.
The characterisation exercises are being undertaken by the Welsh Archaeological
Trusts with grant-aid from Cadw. These studies are initially concentrating
on those areas identified on the Historic Landscapes Register, although
it is accepted that the whole of the Welsh landscape can be said to be,
in one way or another, historic. Information is being prepared in a form
which is compatible to the CCW's landscape assessment and decision making
methodology, known as LANDMAP. It will be made available to a wide range
of organisations and will feed into various initiatives to protect and
manage the Welsh countryside, most notably the Tir Gofal agri-environment
scheme. In north west Wales, LANDMAP exercises have been carried out
in the local authority areas of Gwynedd, Anglesey and the Snowdonia National
Park, and the results have been taken on board by the authorities to
underpin such initiatives as Unitary Development Plans, countryside strategies,
biodiversity action plans and so on.
The Historic Landscapes Register and the characterisation exercises fully
acknowledge the dynamic and evolving nature of the landscape. They promote
the view that protecting the legacy of the past in the landscape is not
to be achieved by preventing change or fossilising the landscape but
rather by informing the process of change, creating tomorrow's landscapes
without necessarily sacrificing the best of yesterday's.
Modified from a statement made by Richard Avent
and Richard Kelly for Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments
and Natural
Resources Wales |