Staff Profiles

I am a researcher and policy advisor on heritage and landscape, and a member of the University’s McCord Centre for Landscape and an External Adviser for the Centre for Landscape. I work frequently in European contexts, notably with the Council of Europe and on EU networking projects. My focus is mainly on historic landscape, interdisciplinary landscape studies, new heritage ideas and archaeological resource management. Since 2012 I have been co-Editor of the journal LANDSCAPES (first with Paul Stamper, latterly with Sam Turner), I currently work with the five-nation Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie International training network HERILAND (2019-2023) and from 2022 in the DFG-AHRC funded project 'Devastation', an Anglo-German partnership between the McCord Centre for Landscape and the Käte Hamburger Center for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies of the University of Heidelberg.

Between 2014 and 2016 I was co-ordinator of the European Commission JPI-Cultural heritage project 'CHeriScape' (www.cheriscape.eu) and member of COST Action IS1007 Investigating Culture in Sustainability (2011-2015). Between 2012 and 2021 I was a Trustee of the Landscape Research Group. Until March 2012, I had a lengthy career in heritage management and landscape research in English Heritage, first as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and from 1993 as leader of the national Monuments Protection Programme (1995-2002), leading the development and implementation of the Historic Landscape Characterisation programme in England, and in 2000 co-ordinating the 'Power of Place' review (2000). Most recently in EH I was as Head of Characterisation (2002 -2012).

I have over the years served in succession on the Councils of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, the Society of Antiquaries of London and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) and was a member of the COST/ESF committee charged with producing the ESF/COST Science Policy Briefing ‘Landscape in a Changing World’, which I co-authored. I was a visiting fellow: in the Dept of Archaeology, York University 2000-2003, in the School of Archaeology, Oxford University 2013-15 and at Newcastle since 2006. In the past I have been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of LE:NOTRE, an EU-funded Europe-wide network of landscape architecture schools, 2004-2014, the MSRG committee, 2010-2013, the Advisory Board for AHRC’s Landscape & Environment Impact Fellowship, 2010-11, and an advisory member of the ESF/COST Landscape ‘Network of Networks’ (SPB committee) (2008-2010) and a lead author of its ESF Science Policy Briefing 'Landscape in a Changing World' (2010)

I am a member of the advisory Board of the Journal of European Landscapes (Amsterdam University Pres) and have peer reviewed for many journals (for example Landscape Research, Antiquity, European Journal of Archaeology, Int. Journal of Heritage Management, Land Use Planning, Geographical Journal, Heritage & Society, Journal of Urban Cultural studies) and publishers (T&F, Oxford University Press, Liverpool Univerity Press, Berghahn), advised and assessed grants for several Research Councils (NWO in the Netherlands, Formas in Sweden, Norwegian Research council, ESF, AHRC - UK) and University programmes (eg Ghent), and lectured to Masters-level heritage /and landscape course in the UK (eg. UC London, Sheffield,Southampton, York, Rewley House Oxford) and other countries (eg UC Dublin, Lund, Gent, Harvard, Budapest, Willowbank) and co-supervised (as 'industry sponsor) two cross-disciplinary PhDs at Lancaster and Sheffield, and externally examined PhDs in Lund, York and Dublin Trinity Coilege.

My principal recent and current research is:

a) 2022-2024: A DFG/AHRC-funded project ‘Devastation’ carried out by an Anglo-German partnership between Newcastle’s MCord Centre for Landscape and the  Käte Hamburger Center for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies of the University of Heidelberg.

b) 2019-2023, HERILAND, a 4-year MSCA International training Network

c) co-Editor of Landscapes

d) follow-up from the CHeriScape project, a three year JPI Cultural Heritage project (2014-16) with five national partners exploring 'Landscape as heritage' by means of a series of five inter-disciplinary conferences. (www.cheriscape.eu) 

e) co-editing a Routledge Handbook on Landscape Character Assessment (published May 2018)

f) section editor for heritage on the Wiley SAS Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences (published late 2018)

In the past I have been closely involved in several European landscape-based network projects (notably European Pathways to the Cultural Landscape, COST A27 Landmarks and Eucaland), and in UK projects such as  AHRC Research Network Early Modern Discourses of Environmental Change and Sustainability and the ERC funded 'EngLaId project (Oxford).

During the last 25 years I have worked on a range of projects from co-writing PPG16 and developing EH policy on sustainability and the historic environment, to historic landscape and countryside matters, and I have worked closely with the implementation across Europe in conjunction with the Council of Europe of both the European Landscape Convention and the Faro Convention on the value of cultural heritage for society. 

• Articles

  • Bele B, Nielsen VKS, Fairclough G, Herring P. A Heritage Without Boundaries: Nature-Culture Synergies in and around Norwegian Protected Landscapes. Human Ecology 2024, 52, 155-172.
  • Van Duijvenvoorde J, Fairclough G, Lekakis S, Meier T, Turner S, Vuletic N. The importance of landscape for identity in the aftermath of devastation and dislocation past and present. Journal of European Landscapes 2023, 4(1), 1-9.
  • Everson P, Stamper P, Williamson T, Fairclough G. Founders: Christopher Taylor. Landscapes 2021, 22(1), 80-96.
  • Fairclough G, Baas H, Bele B, Dabaut N, Hovstad KA, Jerpasen G, Larsen K, Lascaris M, Orejas A, Pedroli B, Raap E, Reher G, Simon VK, Turner S, Van Eetvelde V, Van Caenegem A. The CHeriScape project, 2014–2016: key messages from CHeriScape – cultural solutions for cultural problems. Journal of European Landscapes 2020, 1, 31-36.
  • Fairclough G. Landscape and heritage: ideas from Europe for culturally based solutions in rural environments. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 2019, 62(7), 1149-1165.
  • Fairclough G, Herring P. Lens, mirror, window: interactions between Historic Landscape Characterisation and Landscape Character Assessment. Landscape Research 2016, 41(2), 186-198.
  • Olwig KR, Dalglish C, Fairclough G, Herring P. Introduction to a special issue: the future of landscape characterisation, and the future character of landscape - between space, time, history, place and nature. Landscape Research 2016, 41(2), 169-174.
  • Fairclough G. Essentially cultural: Perspectives on landscape from Europe. Landscape Journal 2016, 35(2), 149-166.
  • Fairclough G. Recalibrating Through 'Landscape'. Landscapes 2013, 14(1), 7-12.

• Authored Books

  • Fairclough G. A Medieval Life: William de Felton and Edlingham Castle, 1260-1327. Oxford: Windgather press (Oxbow Books), 2025.
  • Clark J, Darlington J, Fairclough GJ. Using Historic Landscape Characterisation. Preston, UK: Lancashire County Council/English Heritage, 2004.

• Book Chapters

  • Fairclough G. Europe and its Landscape Convention. In: Steve Brown and Cari Goetcheus, ed. Routledge Handbook of Cultural Landscape Practice. Routledge , Taylor & Francis, 2023, pp.167-172.
  • Collins R, Fairclough G, Turner S. Building a community of practice in a Roman heritage landscape. In: Rodenberg J; Wagenaar P; Burgers GJ, ed. Calling on the Community : Understanding participation in the heritage sector: an interactive governance perspective. Oxford: Berghahn, 2023, pp.71-92.
  • Purves RS, Koblet O, Adams B, Lund KA, Jones K, Luria S, Wartmann F, Fairclough G, Viehhauser G. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Enviromental Narrative. In: Purves, R; Koblet, O; Adams, B, ed. Unlocking Environmental Narratives: Towards Understanding Human Environment Interactions through Computational Text Analysis. London: Ubiquity Press, 2022, pp.17-42.
  • Taylor JE, Mistica M, Fairclough G, Baldwin T. Inferring Value: A Multiscalar Analysis of Landscape Character Assessments. In: Purves, R; Koblet, O; Adams, B, ed. Unlocking Environmental Narratives: Towards Understanding Human Environment Interactions through Computational Text Analysis. London: Ubiquity Press, 2022, pp.179-196.
  • Fairclough G. Florence and Faro, Two Cities and their Conventions: Parks and Everyday Life in Major Cities. In: Murray R, ed. Why Cities Need Large Parks : Large Parks in Large Cities. London: Routledge, 2022, pp.364-375.
  • Fairclough G. The Wisdom of the Commons: 'Together' is always better. In: Lekakis, S, ed. Cultural Heritage in the Realm of the Commons: Conversations on the Case of Greece. London: Ubiquity Press, 2020, pp.v-xi.
  • Fairclough GF. Cultivating Design: resilience (and beauty?) through adapting inherited landscapes. In: Giannetto RF, ed. The Culture of Cultivation: Recovering the Roots of Landscape architecture. Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2020, pp.203-220.
  • Fairclough G. Meaningful Constructions - spatial and functional analysis of medieval buildings. In: Liddiard R, ed. Late Medieval Castles. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2016, pp.101-126.
  • Fairclough GJ. Al lloc adequate, en el moment adequate: l'aigua en el paitsatges humans [In the right place at the right time, water in human landscapes]. In: Nogue J; Puigbert L; Bretcha G, ed. Paitsage, patrimoni i aigua, la memoria del territori. Olot: Observatori del Paisatge de Catalunya [Landscape Onservatory of Catalonia], 2016, pp.12-34.
  • Fairclough G. What Was Wrong With Dufton? Reflections on Counter-Mapping: Self, Alterity and Community, (Afterword). In: Schofield, J, ed. Who Needs Experts? Counter-mapping Cultural Heritage. Ashgate Publishing, 2014, pp.241-8.
  • Holtorf C, Fairclough G. The New Heritage and re-shapings of the past. In: A. Gonzalez-Ruibal, ed. Reclaiming Archaeology: Beyond the tropes of modernity. London, U.K: Routledge, 2013, pp.197-210.
  • Wolferstan S, Fairclough G. Common European heritage: reinventing identity through landscape and heritage?. In: Callebaut, D; Mařík, J; Maříková-Kubková, J, ed. Heritage Reinvents Europe. Budapest, Hungary: European Archaeological Council / Archaeolingua, 2013, pp.43-54.
  • Fairclough G. The value of heritage for the future. In: Ünsal, D, ed. Heritage in Society. Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2012, pp.34-41.
  • Fairclough G. Look the other way - from a branch of archaeology to a root of landscape studies. In: S.J. Kluiving, E. Guttmann-Bond, ed. Landscape Archaeology between Art and Science: From a Multi- to an Interdisciplinary Approach. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012, pp.471-483.
  • Fairclough G. A prospect of time: interactions between landscape architecture and archaeology. In: Bell, S., Sarlov-Herlin, I., Stiles, R, ed. Exploring the boundaries of Landscape Architecture. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2011, pp.83-114.
  • Fairclough G. Landscape and Spatial Planning in England: past achievements, present questions, future goals. In: Gawroński, K., Herznik, J, ed. Planowanie i zagospodarowanie przestrzenne jako instrument kształtowania krajobrazów kulturowych [Spatial planning and development as an instrument for shaping cultural landscapes]. Krakov, Poland: Branta, 2010, pp.125-140.
  • Fairclough G, Turner SC. Constructing a Eucaland Project classification. In: Kruse, A; Pungetti, G, ed. European Culture Expressed in Agricultural Landscapes. Perspectives from the Eucaland Project. Rome: Palombi Editori, 2010, pp.124-145.
  • Fairclough G. Complexity and contingency: classifying the influence of agriculture on European landscape. In: Pungetti, G., Kruse, A, ed. European Culture Expressed in Agricultural Landscapes - perspectives from the Eucaland Project. Roma: Palombi Editori, 2010, pp.115-148.
  • Fairclough G, van Londen H. Changing landscapes of archaeology and heritage. In: Bloemers, J.H.F., Kars, H., van der Valk, A., Wijnen, M, ed. The Cultural Landscape and Heritage Paradox: Protection and Development of the Dutch Archaeological-Historical Landscape and its European Dimension. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2010, pp.653-669.
  • Fairclough G. New Heritage Frontiers. In: Council of Europe, ed. Heritage and Beyond. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe, 2009, pp.29-41.
  • Fairclough G. n.d. Conservation and the British. In: Schofield, J, ed. Defining Moments: Dramatic Archaeologies of the Twentieth-Century. Oxford, UK: British Archaeological Reports, 2009, pp.157-164.
  • Fairclough G, Møller PG. Character and Change: heritage management and the future European landscape. In: Orejas, A., Mattingley, D., Clavel-Lévêque, M, ed. From Present to Past Through Landscape. Madrid, Spain: CSIC, 2009, pp.197-220.
  • Fairclough G. The United Kingdom – England. In: Fairclough, G.J., Møller, P.G, ed. Landscape as heritage - The Management and Protection of Landscape in Europe, a summary by the Action COST A27 “LANDMARKS”. University of Berne: Geographica Bernensia, 2008, pp.269-291.
  • Fairclough G. Rus infra urbe: Pre-industrial landscape below modern cities. In: Compatangelo-Soussignan, R., Bertrand, J.-R., Chapman, J., Laffont, P.-Y, ed. Marqueurs des Paysages et Systèmes socio-économiques (Actes du Colloque COST de Le Mans). Rennes, France: Presses Universitaire de Rennes, 2008, pp.229-241.
  • Fairclough GJ, Møller PG. Landscape Heritage and National Cultures – Comparing national approaches to protecting and managing Europe’s landscape. In: Fairclough, G.J., Møller, P.G, ed. Landscape as Heritage - The Management and Protection of Landscape in Europe. University of Berne: Geographica Bernensia, 2008, pp.13-32.
  • Fairclough G. The contemporary and future landscape: change & creation in the later 20th century. In: McAtackney, L; Palus, M; Piccini, A, ed. Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory, Papers from the 2003 and 2004 CHAT conferences. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007, pp.83-88.
  • Fairclough G. The Cold War in context: archaeological explorations of private and public complexities. In: Schofield, J; Cocroft, W, ed. A Fearsome Heritage: Diverse Legacies of the Cold War. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2007, pp.19-32.
  • Fairclough G. L’histoire et le temps: gérer paysage et ses perceptions (History, Time and Change: managing landscape and perception). In: Berlan-Darque, M; Terrasson, D; Luginbuhl, Y, ed. Paysage: de la connaissance à l’action (Landscapes: from knowledge to action). Paris: Editions Quae, 2007, pp.149-162.
  • Turner SC, Fairclough GJ. Common Culture: The Archaeology of Landscape Character in Europe. In: Hicks, D; McAtackney, L; Fairclough, GJ, ed. Envisioning Landscape: Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2007, pp.120-145.
  • Fairclough GJ. A New Landscape for Cultural Heritage Management: Characterisation as a Management Tool. In: Lozny, Ludomir R, ed. Landscapes Under Pressure: Theory and Practice of Cultural Heritage Research and Preservation. New York: Springer, 2006, pp.55-74.
  • Fairclough GJ. 'The long chain': archaeology, historical landscape characterization and time depth in the landscape. In: Palang, H., Fry, G, ed. Landscape Interfaces: Cultural Heritage in Changing Landscapes. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, pp.295-317.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Fairclough G, Dragicevic-Sesic M, Rogac-Mijatovic L, Auclair E, Soini K. The Faro Convention, a new paradigm for socially- and culturally-sustainable heritage action?. In: CCCS (Centre for Culture and Cultural Studies) conference 2013 ‘Cultural memory’. 2014, Skopje. Submitted.
  • Fairclough G, Dragicevic-Sesic M, Rogac-Mijatovic L, Auclair E, Soini K. The Faro Convention, a new paradigm for socially- and culturally-sustainable heritage action?. In: CCCS (Centre for Culture and Cultural Studies) conference 2013 ‘Cultural memory’. 2014, Skopje. Submitted.
  • Fairclough G, Pedroli B, Dabaut N. Introduction, Seeing Heritage through the Lens of Landscape: New Approaches in Landscape Archaeology Based on the Fusion of Heritage and Landscape. In: 3rd International Landscape Archaeology Conference LAC2014. 2014, Rome: CLUE+, the research institute for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage of the VU University Amsterdam.
  • Fairclough G, Sarlov-Herlin I. General Conclusions/ Conclusions Générales, Landscape and Driving Forces / Paysage et forces gouvernantes/déterminantes. In: Proceedings/Actes of 8th Meeting of the C of E workshops for the implementation of the ELC. 2010, Malmö, Sweden: Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
  • Fairclough GJ. History and time: managing landscape and perceptions. In: From Knowledge of Landscapes to Landscaping Action. 2004, Bordeaux, France.

• Edited Books

  • Fairclough G, Sarlöv Herlin I, Swanwick C, ed. Routledge Handbook of Landscape Character Assessment: Current Approaches to Characterisation and Assessment. London: Routledge, 2018.
  • Auclair E, Fairclough G, ed. Theory and Practice in Heritage and Sustainability: Between Past and Future. London: Routledge Earthscan, 2015.
  • Dessein J, Soini K, Fairclough G, Horlings L, ed. Culture in, for and as Sustainable Development. Conclusions from the COST Action IS1007 Investigating Cultural Sustainability. University of Jyväskylä, Finland: University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 2015.
  • Fairclough GJ, Møller PG, ed. Landscape as heritage - the Management and Protection of Landscape in Europe, a summary by the Action COST A27 “LANDMARKS”. Berne: University of Berne, Institute of Geography, 2008.
  • Fairclough G, Schofield J, Harrison R, Jameson J, ed. The Heritage Reader. London: Routledge, 2007.
  • Hicks D, McAtackney L, Fairclough G, ed. Envisioning Landscape: Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2007.

• Editorial

  • Waterton E, Broto VC, Fairclough G, Jones K, Watt LA. Thinking and writing with care. Landscape Research 2022, 47(1), 1-9.

• Note

  • Fairclough G. Others: A prologue. Heritage and Social Media: Understanding Heritage in a Participatory Culture 2012, xiv-xvii.

• Online Publications

  • Fairclough G. New Heritage Frontiers: Heritage, Landscape and Sustainability, keynote lecture at Heritage Canada 40th Anniversary Conference October 31 – November 2, 2013, Ottawa. Heritage Canada, 2013. Available at: http://www.heritagecanada.org/sites/www.heritagecanada.org/files/Text%20-%20Fairclough%20Ottawa%20Nov.%202013.pdf.
  • Fairclough G, Sarlöv-Herlin I. Introduction to ‘Experiences of landscape identification and assessment: national, regional and local levels’ - Methods: Scales and levels. (workshop presentations, Council of Europe, Montenegro workshop, 2-3 October 2013). Cetinje, Montenegro: Council of Europe, 2013. Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/heritage/Landscape/ReunionAteliers/cetinje/speech/Sarlov-intro.pdf.

• Report

  • Aldred O, Fairclough G. Historic Landscape Characterisation Taking Stock of the Method. Bristol, UK: Somerset County Council; English Heritage, 2003. The National HLC Review 2002.