Shropshire Council

Historic landscape characterisation

The Shropshire Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) project mapped the historic character of the county’s landscape using modern and historic editions of the Ordnance Survey maps, together with a limited but consistent range of additional sources. This resulted in the definition of over 30,000 individual survey units and 58 different historic landscape character types. To view the individual sections of the report produced as part of this project, use the links under related documents on this page.

The results help us to understand how the landscape of the county has changed and evolved over time. The report also details the way in which the emerging results were applied during the life of the project, helping to illustrate how HLC provides a vital starting point for those seeking to manage the direction of future landscape change.

In 2006 the former Shropshire County Council also combined the HLC with the Shropshire Landscape Character Assessment, resulting in the definition of the Shropshire Landscape Typology.