News

Mining landscape of Cornwall and West Devon becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site

13th July 2006

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.

Source: Department for Culture, Media and Sport