Collections and research

Merseyside Historic Characterisation Project

The Merseyside Historic Characterisation Project (MHCP) was carried out by staff within the former Merseyside Archaeological Advisory Service (MAAS), National Museums Liverpool. The MHCP covers the five local authorities which make up the Merseyside area: Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral.

The national programme of Historic Landscape Characterisation projects (HLC) have been supported and developed by English Heritage in partnership with local government historic environment colleagues, chiefly by the archaeological advisory services in recognition of providing a more spatial dimension to the local Historic Environment Record (HER). HLC gives broad-brush overviews of complex aspects of the historic environment using a desk-based programme of GIS mapping and analysis.

The Merseyside project reporting was completed in 2011 by the Merseyside Archaeological Officer (Museum of Liverpool, National Museums Liverpool); and is published through five separate reports plus an historic settlement study: Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

You can access the reports by following the links below on this page.

The reports are produced as follows:

• Part 1 - Report sections 1 to 6: Contents and Introduction to historic landscape characterisation, project background, methodology, sources and Merseyside
• Part 2 - Report sections 7 and 8: Introduce the local authority study area and provide an overview of its historic character from the project analysis
• Part 3 - Report section 9: the core body and historic character analysis of the local authority study area, using statistics and graphic examples to demonstrate project findings, interpretation and analysis
• Part 4 - Report sections 10 and 11: Bibliography and Appendices for the local authority study area including project methodology and statistics
• Part 5 - Report section Appendix 11: Management Guidance tables
• Part 6 - the Historic Settlement study for the local authority area

Please note that the Part 3 report for each area is extremely large, so an alternative compressed version of the same pdf is available.

Knowsley

• Knowsley Part 1 (pdf)
• Knowsley Part 2 (pdf)
• Knowsley Part 3 (with compressed images) (pdf)
• Knowsley Part 3 (full version) (large pdf 43.1MB)
• Knowsley Part 4 (pdf)
• Knowsley Part 5 (pdf)
• Knowsley Part 6 (pdf)

Liverpool

• Liverpool Part 1 (pdf)
• Liverpool Part 2 (pdf)
• Liverpool Part 3 (with compressed images) (pdf)
• Liverpool Part 3 (full version) (large pdf 58.9MB)
• Liverpool Part 4 (pdf)
• Liverpool Part 5 (pdf)
• Liverpool Part 6 (pdf)

Sefton

• Sefton Part 1 (pdf)
• Sefton Part 2 (pdf)
• Sefton Part 3 (with compressed images) (pdf)
• Sefton Part 3 (full version) (large pdf 62.8MB)
• Sefton Part 4 (pdf)
• Sefton Part 5 (pdf)
• Sefton Part 6 (pdf)

St Helens

• St Helens Part 1 (pdf)
• St Helens Part 2 (pdf)
• St Helens Part 3 (with compressed images) (pdf)
• St Helens Part 3 (full version) (large pdf 56.3MB)
• St Helens Part 4 (pdf)
• St Helens Part 5 (pdf)
• St Helens Part 6 (pdf)

Wirral

• Wirral Part 1 (pdf)
• Wirral Part 2 (pdf)
• Wirral Part 3 (with compressed images) (pdf)
• Wirral Part 3 (full version) (large pdf 40.4MB)
• Wirral Part 4 (pdf)
• Wirral Part 5 (pdf)
• Wirral Part 6 (pdf)