Historic landscape characterisation

Over the last decade English Heritage has been supporting projects designed to characterise the historic landscape of England.

The first projects were undertaken in largely rural areas but they now wish to extend the characterisation into the urban metropolitan areas.

Historic landscape characterisation studies are largely desk-based, making use of existing documents, maps, aerial photographs and other heritage information.

The aim is to gain an understanding of how places have developed over time and to identify landscape types and character areas.

The information derived from such studies can then be used to assist in the protection and enhancement of the local character and distinctiveness of an area when development proposals are being considered.

Black Country Historic Landscape Characterisation

A characterisation study is now underway of the landscape of the four Black Country local government areas (Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton).  Supported by English Heritage, the study started in 2004 and is due to be completed in 2008. 

So far the whole area of the Black Country has been divided into more than 12,000 parcels of land for the purposes of the study.  Each of these has been catalogued in terms of its current land use, period of origin, previous uses etc. These small parcels of land have been divided into more than 50 larger ‘Character Areas’, each of which encompass parts of the Black Country with similar characteristics. 

The process by which parcels of land have been divided into character areas is explained in the document 'The Creation of Character Area Boundaries through the Analysis of HLC Polygons: A Technical Paper', available to download below:

We are now in the process of writing short profiles of each of the resulting character areas, containing comments on the modern and historic character of the landscape in each part of the Black Country.

Character area profiles for the 12 areas which fall within the boundaries of Wolverhampton can be downloaded further below.

Character area profiles

As part of the Historic Landscape Characterisation, the landscape of the city of Wolverhampton has been divided into 12 character areas. The boundaries of these areas can be seen on a map of the city presented in the attached PDF file ‘Wolverhampton Character Areas’.

Profiles are available for the following areas:

• Wolverhampton City Centre and Industrial Districts - WV01
• Wolverhampton Outer Western Suburbs - WV02
• South Bilston and Ettingshall - WV03
• Ettingshall Park and Lanesfield - WV04
• Fallings Park and Wednesfield North - WV05
• North Bilston, Portobello and Moseley - WV06
• Wednesfield South - WV07
• Bradley - WV08
• Ashmore Park - WV09
• Pendeford, Fordhouses and Bushbury - WV10
• Blakenhall, Bradmore and Penn - WV11
• Wolverhampton Inner Western Suburbs WV12

Profiles are available for each of the areas which provide maps of the modern land use and period of origin of the landscape in the area, as well as some comments on the modern and historical character of each part of the city.

The purpose of the profiles is not to detail the history of particular buildings or archaeological sites, but rather to say something about what is distinctive about the area and the way it has developed.

Download

To download character area profiles for Wolverhampton, click on the PDF icons below:

  

  

  

  

We would very much welcome any comments on the profiles and, should you have any, you can get in touch by contacting the Black Country Archaeologist.’

Further Information

Contact the Black Country Archaeologist (based at Wolverhampton City Council) for more information on the study.

More information on characterisation can also be found on the Council for British Archaeology web site and the English Heritage web site.