 |
 |
-----Original Message----- From: A news service for British archaeology [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Bateman Sent: 13 July 2006 15:47 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Mining landscape of Cornwall and West Devon becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site DCMS news release Date: July 13, 2006 Time: 12:45 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. Notes to Editors 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 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 Heart of Neolithic Orkney The Historic Town of St George & Related Fortifications, Bermuda Blaenavon Industrial Landscape Derwent Valley Mills Saltaire New Lanark Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City Natural Giant's Causeway St Kilda Henderson Island Gough and Inaccessible Islands Dorset and East Devon Coast Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200 Internet: http://www.culture.gov.uk Department for Culture, Media and Sport 2-4 Cockspur Street London SW1Y 5DH www.culture.gov.uk