Welcome to Warwickshire County Council

The HER has recently completed the Warwickshire Historic Farmstead Characterisation Project (HFC)

The project seeks to understand how Farmsteads, and in particular traditional farm buildings of 19th century or earlier date, make a fundamental contribution to local distinctiveness and a sense of place, through their varied forms, use of materials and the way that they relate to the surrounding landscape.

The project aims to help us understand an essential aspect of the county and it has great potential to inform our understanding of historic farmstead character, survival and current use within their landscape. Furthermore the project will for the first time provide us with the evidence to understand and demonstrate how farmsteads contribute to local distinctiveness and landscape character.

The project provides professionals, researches and the public with information to understand the patterning of farmsteads in their local area and the past processes that have lead to their distinctive character. This information can also be used to identify local historic assets and potential targets for fieldwork. Such examinations of farmsteads and their buildings can reveal how buildings have changed over time, often in response to important developments in agricultural practice or the shifting emphases of agricultural regions. Further case studies could be carried out at a parish level to understand historic landscape development over time and the relationship with historic farmsteads and other settlement.

The results of the Warwickshire HFC project have been integrated into the Historic Environment Record and as such the information and data is available to anyone wishing to know more about the Historic Farm Character in their area.

This report is also available online at: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hfc

This project forms part of a regional project investigating Historic Farmstead Characterisation in the West Midlands on a county by county basis that was started and funded by English Heritage with additional funding by the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands

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