The history lesson:

In 1960 construction began on a new dam at Aswan in Egypt. International alarm at the imminent flooding of major monuments such as the Abu Simbel temples resulted in a rescue operation, supported by 50 countries, and 24 monuments were moved out of the danger zone.

The success of the operation led to other protective efforts, notably Venice and its Lagoon. Eventually an international convention was adopted in 1972 to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the world. Early sites include the Galapagos Islands and Yellowstone National Park, both 1978; the Grand Canyon and the Pyramids, both 1979; the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, 1981; the historic centre of Florence, 1982; and the Taj Mahal, 1983. By 1983 there were over 160 sites on the list.

The present:

Today the list runs to 830 sites. Of the 18 sites that were added in 2006, one was the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. Covering ten locations, nine in Cornwall and one on the Tamar border, it includes three on the north coast: St Just, the Port of Hayle, and St Agnes. The following is an adaptation by the World Heritage Site Office, Cornwall County Council, of the description given in the Unesco website http://whc.unesco.org/en:

“Much of the landscape of Cornwall and West Devon was transformed in the 18th and early 19th centuries as a result of the rapid and pioneering growth of deep lode copper and tin mining. Its underground mines, engine houses, foundries, new towns, smallholdings, ports, harbours, and ancillary industries together reflect prolific innovation which, in the early 19th century, enabled the region to produce two-thirds of the world's supply of copper. During the late 1800s, arsenic production came into ascendancy with mines in the East of Cornwall and West Devon supplying half the world’s demand.

The substantial relict landscape created during this explosive period of industrialisation is a testimony to the contribution Cornwall and West Devon made to the industrial revolution in the rest of Britain and to the fundamental influence the region had on the mining world at large. Cornish technology embodied in engines, engine houses and mining techniques and equipment, was exported around the world; Cornwall and West Devon lay at the heartland of a global mining economy.

Commencing in the early 1800s, significant numbers of mine workers migrated to live and work in mining communities based on Cornish traditions, this flow reaching its zenith at the end of the 19th century. Numerous migrant-descended Cornish communities flourish around the world and distinctive Cornish-design engine houses can be seen in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, the British Virgin Islands, Spain, and in the mining fields of Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.”

The future:

There are several consequences of the award, not least the substantial task of protecting the heritage site. In a site that is distributed over ten locations, each covering a large area, the job is quite daunting. A Site Office has been established with responsibility for co-ordinating action, monitoring and evaluation.

There are opportunities as well as threats: one of these is the increase in tourist numbers that follow a World Heritage award, often in the “shoulder” months. It is predictable that an increase in numbers will impact the local economy – and with that icon of the mining landscape, Wheal Coates, located in St Agnes, we might just see a slice of that number.

The World Heritage Site Office is keen that tourists are presented with more than mine buildings, that they are made aware of the wider mining legacy. A legacy that is a combination of three factors: “natural” landscapes, man-made landscapes, and the cultural traditions that arose here and shaped the future both here and worldwide. Not just tourists, residents too.

   © Mario de Pace