At 11:53 14/07/2006, Tom Greeves wrote:
>I think now is the time to congratulate all those who have worked
>towards this designation and who have gathered a phenomenal amount
>of information relating to the Cornwall and West Devon World
>Heritage Site. The data will stand on its own, however people
>respond to the designation.
I must agree with Tom. Whatever your view on the relevance of
'Cornish Mining' to the industrialisation of Britain and mining
world-wide, the work carried out by the team supporting the bid was
outstanding and will be of continuing benefit to mining heritage in
general and the south-west of England in particular.
In a proposal of this nature, definition is important. Be it the
pilgrims' routes to St. Jacques de Compostella or mining in the
south-west of England clear boundaries both geographic and
chronological are required for the bid to have an impact on the
layman. Over the last five or six years I have seen the bid proposal
develop - in fact I've lost count of the number of presentations I've
seen - and those boundaries have been examined in detail.
We all have our views on what might have been included - my own
interests, in medieval hard rock mining, can provide examples of the
origins of what came to be described as 'Cornish Mining' which,
although they are within the geographic boundaries of the World
Heritage Site, are not addressed in detail - centralised management,
capital investment in future production, mechanised pumping, what is
probably the first planned mining town in Britain (Bere Alston), they
are are all there in south-west Devon.
Mining in the south-west of England is, however, not homogenous -
geologically it is not one 'mining field'. The mineralisation in
north Devon and on Exmoor is quite different from that associated
with Cornubian granite emplacement although it does have some
connection with that associated with the Perran Iron Lode in north
Cornwall. The antiquity of mining on and around Exmoor, the early tin
working on Dartmoor and the Cornish moors, the medieval deep mining
at Bere Ferrers, are all relevant to the development of the industry
celebrated in the inscription; and they're all being actively
investigated. In fact, the focus on mining in the south-west should
provide the initiative for further investigation as the disparities
between what we know about the industrial period and earlier mining
become clearer.
Well done Cornwall and Devon.
Peter
______________________________________________
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
Research Fellow - School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources
Hon. University Fellow - School of Historical, Political and
Sociological Studies
Office address - Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter,
Laver Building, North Park Road, EXETER, EX4 4QE Tel. +44 (0) 1392 263709
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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