13.07.06
Mining landscape of Cornwall and West Devon becomes a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
The mining landscape of Cornwall and West Devon has become
a World Heritage Site, following a decision by the World Heritage
Committee, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced today.
Cornwall and West Devon has supplied much of the western
world's tin and copper over the last 4,000 years and
for a time during the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was
the world's greatest producer of these metals. As such,
it contributed substantially to Britain's Industrial
Revolution and influenced mining technology and industrialisation
throughout the world.
It is this influence on the global culture and economy which
has been acknowledged by the World Heritage Committee.
Tessa Jowell said: "I am delighted that the World
Heritage Committee has recognised the outstanding universal
value of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape and
its important contribution to national and international industrialisation.
This historic area and its people have significantly influenced
the development of mining and engineering culture, not just
in the UK, but across the rest of the world.
"To many, World Heritage status calls to mind
such famous monuments as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of
China. But it is important to realise that sites like the
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape are as deserving
of recognition and protection as their more well-known companions
on the World Heritage List."
The addition of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
to the World Heritage List extends the UK's representation
to 27 sites and heralds the UK's support for UNESCO's
aim of widening the range and type of sites on the World Heritage
List to include, among other categories, the industrial heritage.
For further information please contact the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport press office on: 020 7211 6272 or
6276.
Editor's notes:
| 1. |
The proposed Site includes all those mine sites and
mining landscapes where there has been an exceptional
survival of the physical remains. These are largely late
18th century, 19th century and in a few instances, pre-1914
mining remains. It does not include those widespread areas
of tin streaming that survive in Cornwall and West Devon,
associated with a pre-Industrial Revolution technology
and therefore not considered representative of the 19th
century boom years. |
| 2. |
Ten areas have been identified as best representing
the many different facets of Cornish mining: St Just;
Hayle; Tregonning; Wendron; Camborne-Redruth; Gwennap;
St Agnes; Luxulan-Charlestown; Caradon; and Tamar-Tavistock.
|
| 3. |
The Cornish Mining Industry was included in the UK's
Tentative List of sites likely to be nominated in the
future, World Heritage Sites – The Tentative List
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
was published by DCMS in June 1999. Inclusion on the Tentative
List is a prerequisite for formal nomination. |
| 4. |
The concept of World Heritage Sites is at the core of
the World Heritage Convention, adopted by UNESCO in 1972,
to which over 180 nations belong. Through the Convention,
UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection
and preservation of the cultural and natural heritage
around the world considered to be of outstanding value
to humanity. The Convention required the establishment
of the World Heritage List, under the management of an
inter-governmental World Heritage Committee as a means
of recognising that some places, both natural and cultural,
are of sufficient importance to be the responsibility
of the international community as a whole. As a member
of the Convention, States Parties are pledged to care
for their World Heritage sites as part of protecting their
national heritage. |
| 5. |
Nominations for inscription on the World Heritage List
are made by the appropriate States Parties and are subject
to rigorous evaluation by expert advisers to the World
Heritage Committee, International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS) for cultural sites and/or the World
Conservation Union (IUCN) for natural sites. Decisions
on the selection of new World Heritage Sites are taken
by the World Heritage Committee at its annual summer meetings.
There are currently 812 World Heritage Sites in 137 countries.
Some 628 are cultural sites, 160 are natural and 24 are
mixed. |
| 6. |
Inclusion in the World Heritage List is essentially
honorific and leaves the
existing rights and obligations of owners, occupiers and
planning authorities unaffected. A prerequisite for World
Heritage Site status is, nevertheless, the existence of
effective legal protection and the establishment of management
plans agreed with site owners to ensure each site's
conservation and presentation. |
| 7. |
The UK's World Heritage Sites are currently: |
| |
Cultural |
| |
|
Ironbridge Gorge |
| |
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Stonehenge, Avebury & Associated Sites |
| |
|
Durham Castle & Cathedral |
| |
|
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains
Abbey |
| |
|
Castles & Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynned |
| |
|
Blenheim Palace |
| |
|
City of Bath |
| |
|
Hadrian's Wall |
| |
|
Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey & St Margaret's
Church |
| |
|
Tower of London |
| |
|
Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey &
St Martin's Church |
| |
|
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh |
| |
|
Maritime Greenwich |
| |
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Heart of Neolithic Orkney |
| |
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The Historic Town of St George & Related Fortifications,
Bermuda |
| |
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Blaenavon Industrial Landscape |
| |
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Derwent Valley Mills |
| |
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Saltaire |
| |
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New Lanark |
| |
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| |
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Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City |
| |
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Giant's Causeway |
| |
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St Kilda |
| |
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Henderson Island |
| |
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Gough and Inaccessible Islands |
| |
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Dorset and East Devon Coast |
Press Enquiries: 020 7211 6272 / 6276
Out of hours telephone pager no: 07699 751153
Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200
Internet: www.culture.gov.uk
Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439
cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk
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