Introductions to Heritage Assets (IHAs)

What IHAs cover

Introductions to Heritage Assets (IHAs) provide accessible, authoritative, well-illustrated summaries of our current understanding of particular building types, especially those which, until now, have been little studied. IHAs typically share a common approach, headings and format.

A short Introduction defines the building or asset type, notes any alternative names by which it is known, gives the broad date range, and discusses the distribution and number of known examples. Any particular threats to the type are identified.

Next comes a Description, or Historical background, which considers in greater detail the structures’ locations, their form and plan, and how they functioned.

With more complex building or asset types there may be a separate section on Chronology, tracing their development through time. For assets, this is followed by a discussion of the Development of the monument type as revealed by investigation - what has been revealed by archaeology or survey work of all sorts.

Each is concluded by a narrative guide to Further Reading, which signposts key works, especially those of an accessible character.

IHAs fall under 4 main categories: buildings, monuments, landscapes and vessels.

Buildings

IHAs focussing on buildings complement the Listing Selection Guide series providing more detailed consideration of particular asset type’. Titles will be added as the need arises, and as new research and understanding becomes available.

Archaeology

While there is no aspiration to have an entirely comprehensive series covering all types of sites from early prehistory to present, the 41 IHAs completed to date do include the majority of the main groups of heritage asset from early prehistory to the end of the Middle Ages. As with buildings, they complement the Selection Guide series.

More will be added as time goes on, especially when new research alters accepted understanding.

Designed landscapes

These focus on lesser-known landscape types and features. We will add to this series as new issues require it.

Ships and boats

While there is no aspiration to have an entirely comprehensive series covering all types of vessels from early prehistory to the years immediately following the Second World War, the two IHAs consider:

• All vessels used on inland waters, coastal waters, and the open sea
• Identify key archaeological discoveries
• Address the main vessel types, including submarines and those that are now buried underground and those no longer afloat

List of IHAs

• 19th- and 20th-Century Convents and Monasteries
• 19th and 20th Century Roman Catholic Churches
• 20th-Century Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Power Generation
• Anglo-Jewish Burial Grounds - The Post-Resettlement Period
• Animal Management
• Artillery Defences
• Banjo Enclosures
• Buildings and Infrastructure for the Motor Car
• Causewayed Enclosures
• Caves, Fissures and Rockshelters
• Civil Defence - From the First World War to the Cold War
• Coastguard Stations
• Domestic Housing for Disabled Veterans 1900-2014
• Drill Halls
• Earthwork Castles
• Enclosed Prehistoric Settlements
• Field Systems
• Gasworks and Gasholders
• Hermitages
• Hillforts
• Historic Amusement Parks and Fairground Rides
• Interwar Theatres
• Later Prehistoric Shrines and Ritual Structures
• Law Courts and Courtrooms 1 - The Buildings of the Criminal Law
• Law Courts and Courtrooms 2 - Civil and Coroner's Courts
• Linear Frontiers
• Mechanics' Institutes
• Medieval and Early Post-Medieval Glassworks
• Medieval and Later Fieldworks
• Medieval Settlements
• Megalithic Chamber Tombs
• Mills
• Nonconformist Places of Worship
• Oppida
• Post-Modern Architecture
• Post-War Landscapes
• Pre-Christian Cemeteries
• Pre-industrial Ironworks
• Pre-industrial Lime Kilns
• Pre-industrial Mines and Quarries
• Pre-industrial Roads, Trackways and Canals
• Pre-industrial Salterns
• Prehistoric and Romano-British Settlements with Structures
• Prehistoric Avenues and Alignments
• Prehistoric Barrows and Burial Mounds
• Prehistoric Henges and Circles
• Prehistoric Linear Boundary Earthworks
• Prehistoric Rock Art
• Public Art 1945-95
• Railway Goods Sheds and Warehouses
• River Fisheries and Coastal Fish Weirs
• Roman Amphitheatres, Theatres and Circuses
• Roman and Medieval Pottery and Tile Production
• Roman and Medieval Sea and River Flood Defences
• Roman Forts and Fortresses
• Roman Settlements
• Saxon Shore Forts
• Science Laboratories to 1900
• Shielings
• Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950
• Ships and Boats: Prehistory to 1840
• Shopping Parades
• Shrines (Roman and Post-Roman)
• Signal Boxes
• Stone Castles
• The Commercial Office 1900-39
• The English Public Library 1850-1939
• The English Public Library 1945-85
• The Late 20th-Century Commercial Office
• War Memorial Parks and Gardens
• Water Meadows