Article

Anchor points and the European Route of
Industrial Heritage

The European Route of Industrial Heritage came about in an attempt to create themed routes allowing the discovery of industrial heritage sites by topic, by region or in other ways. It is connected with the promotion of these as tourist attractions. While appealing to local areas and specialities, it also attempts to highlight the parallel or sequential development steps that were occurring in different European countries, one often developing out of another.

It covers, as at August 2009, 845 sites in 29 European countries. 213 of these locations are in the UK.

In each country there are regional routes, in Britain there are 4:-

• Northwest England

• Heart of England

• East of England

• South Wales

There are 10 themed routes across Europe covering:-

• Mining: The treasures of the Earth

• Iron & Steel: The glow of the blast furnaces

• Textiles: From fibre to fabrique

• Production: Goods for the world

• Energy: What makes us go

• Transport & Communication: The tracks of the Industrial Revolution

• Water: Blue Gold

• Housing & Architecture

• Service & Leisure Industry

• Industrial Landscapes

All of the sites that are in the UK we have listed in European Route of Industrial Heritage - UK Sites.   

Anchor Points on the European Route of Industrial Heritage

The 66 Anchor Points are the principle places that offer either specifically important historic features or are particularly attractive to visitors and go across both themes and countries. Of the 66, 27 are within the UK. You can see a full list of the anchor points across countries on their website. In our listing  European Route of Industrial Heritage - UK Sites,  we have produced a listing of all the sites that are within the UK, and highlighted those that are anchor points with links to both the individual websites and those within our location guides.

Anchor points cover a complete range of industries and most, if not all, have more for tourists with guided tours, multi media presentations and more and in many cases are the centrepiece or a part of a local industrial area, with other attractions.

There is a partial overlap between anchor points and places that are featured in the World Heritage Sites listing.

Many of the anchor points are covered by location guides, and these are linked within the  European Route of Industrial Heritage - UK Sites,  listing.

The Iron Bridge at Ironbridge, Shropshire

Topic areas, our indexes and Location Guides

As Industrial Heritage goes across a very wide number of industries, historic periods and structures, we don't have industrial heritage within our topic listing under heritage but instead have a range of topics under heritage that covers these areas. In many cases the industrial topics are easy to spot in the heritage classification, and would also be the sub headings that you could break industrial heritage down into. 

Historically prior to the industrial revolution, industrial activities were a part of communities, and we have generally not indexed these away from but included them in the topic areas, so for example Roman covers all activities relating to the period the Romans were in Britain. Going right back to the Neolithic period you will find mention of industrial activity, but usually as a part of a village or community, only later do we have identifiable specifics like windmills, bridges, and the like. We also have a heading of living history museums that often contain a wide range of items relating to a place or time and as such include one or a number of industrial exhibits.