ABSTRACT
A second and more practical thread to the work was the need for more information for planning decisions. The Ironbridge Gorge is one of less than a dozen World Heritage Sites which relate to the history of industry; it is also a Conservation Area which contains seven Scheduled Ancient Monuments and over two hundred Listed buildings. Yet despite this protection, planning decisions are often made without taking full account of the historical landscape. Elements within the landscape, such as the water-power systems, or early industrial housing, have been lost through failure to recognise their importance, and have not always been acknowledged and reflected in the system of protection. The mechanism for protecting archaeological sites is the Sites and Monuments Record held by the County Council, but it includes only a small proportion of the potential number of sites in the
Gorge. Augmenting the Sites and Monuments Record was a prime justification for the work. However, it became clear that decisions needed more than just new archaeological points on the map. It was necessary to identify and present the links between these sites, to understand the historical structure of the landscape. In order to do this, a more complex type of survey was needed.
