EUROPAMINES [ex- MINET], the European Mining Heritage Network.
Some of you may have been following the very occasional references to the
lengthy metamorphosis of the 1999 'MINET' project into its new successor
hybrid, 'EUROPAMINES', not least because the otherwise attractive title
MINET had very unfortunate connotations in French, Portugese and Polish.
Apart from our singular lack of success in conjuring up a better title than
Europamines [alternative suggestions are still very welcome, but need to be
submitted very promptly to John Morris - see below], the project proposal
itself has been funded in full by, and as submitted to the EU Culture 2000
Programme. Contracts were signed in July by the EU Secretariat and by the
Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), acting as the Lead Partner on behalf of
a consortium of funding partners in the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal and
Ireland [Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland (MHTI), as well as GSI], along
with a number of associate, non-funding partners in Cornwall, Germany,
France and Poland.
The one year (August 1, 2004 to July 31, 2005), Euro100,000 budget project
is basically an enabling action to provide for the creation of Europamines
as a legally formulated entity which will provide a sustainable framework
for pursuing, amongst other actions:
1) heightened awareness and appreciation of Europe's mining heritage,
in all its diversity, technological, historical, architectural, social,
cultural etc;
2) lobbying for the conservation of such heritage, to complement
similar activities by other national and international groups such as TICCIH;
3) creating a series of communications and publicity tools, including
a web site, information leaflets and display units;
4) providing a series of thematic, on-site training sessions (5 such
sessions are planned in the 1 year period, in Cornwall (see note below),
Spain (Linares - early December 2004), Italy (March 2005), Poland (late
April 2005) and Portugal (June 2005)), and an annual conference; [NB all
dates provisional]
5) and to create a partnership forum through which members will be
able to identify mutually advantageous developmental and funding
opportunities in the future.
Membership will be open to all site specific, regional or national bodies
which are actively engaged in mine heritage conservation, presentation or
research activities, and which will subscribe to a quality standard
represented in the network charter and code of good practice. Many of
these issues have been outlined in the first 'Europamines Bulletin' which
has been circulated to all current project members for consideration and
in-depth development at the first planned training session, in Cornwall in
late September (See notice below). Ongoing reports on developments and
reviews of actions will be provided the MHTI web site - http://www.mhti.com
- , which will provide for more in-depth coverage via a hot-link to the
Europamines web site, once it has been established.
MHTI is a funding partner in the project, a position due entirely to
allocation of a special grant of Euro5,000 from the Heritage Council, an
award which MHTI very gratefully acknowledges.
John Morris <[log in to unmask]>
Workshop, September 24 - 26: Recording and Interpreting Cornish Engine
Houses from extant ruins.
An effort was made to include measuring, recording and interpreting Cornish
Engine Houses, engine sizes etc from extant engine house ruins as part of
an MHTI trip to Linares earlier in the year, but, for various reasons, this
focus had to be dropped. Instead, efforts were switched to organising such
a workshop in Cornwall - not unreasonably! This intention is now taking
shape in the form of a joint MHTI/Trevithick Society field meeting which is
proposed to be held over the weekend of September 25 - 26. The workshop
will be conducted by Ken Brown, who will also be giving a Trevithick
Society hosted lecture on the topic of "Cornish Engine Oddities", in The
Public Rooms, Liskeard at 7pm on Friday evening, Sept. 24.
This workshop will, in addition, form one strand of an EUROPAMINES project
workshop in Cornwall, which will continue on to about Sept. 29 to include
consideration of adverse environmental impact of mining and mitigation
strategies, as well as the "Cornish World Mining" UNESCO World Heritage
Site bid. These will include lecture room presentations and site visits, as
well as EUROPAMINES project partner business meetings. The exact schedule
and timing of these events is still being developed.
John Morris <[log in to unmask]>; or phone +353-1-678-2871
______________________________________________
Dr Peter Claughton,
Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831 427599
Hon. University Fellow
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies (Centre for South
Western Historical Studies)
University of Exeter
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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