BEST OF 2020 Cornwall and West Devon’s UNESCO World Heritage Site

By Emma Parkman, Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site Office

Bellingham’s Shaft engine house © Ainsley Cocks

In 2006 selected mining landscapes across Cornwall and west Devon were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, placing Cornish mining heritage on a par with international treasures like The , the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China. The Cornish Mining World Heritage Site covers ten Areas, 20,000 hectares, spreads into two counties and contains over 200 iconic houses (the largest concentration of such monuments anywhere in the world). It is the largest Industrial World Heritage Site in the UK.

The designation was awarded due to the contribution the Cornwall and west Devon mining industry made to the industrial revolution and the fundamental influence it had on mining worldwide. The landscapes here were shaped by mining, the effects of which are still seen today; towns, ports and the wider countryside were transformed by the industry and inventions such as the Trevithick high pressure steam engine – the Cornish Engine - revolutionised the way mines worked and led to steam powered rail. Towns were expanded and transformed to house workers and new towns were built, a whole industry exploded and with it so did the population. Ports and transport links were built and many ancillary industries established to support the mining industry. The Site’s designation not only protects the iconic engine houses but also mineworkers’ smallholdings, mining settlements, ports, foundries, fuse works, smelters, transportation routes, chapels and so much more. Part of the Cornish mining legacy is not just what you can find here in Cornwall but what survives around the world. Ports such as sent mining technology across the globe, and the mineworkers with their wealth of knowledge followed, this huge migration of people taking their skills, culture and food today known as the Cornish Diaspora. Because of this migration you can find Cornish mining descendants in places such as Peru, North America, Australia, Mexico to name but a few. The mineworkers, also known as “Cousin Jacks”, took Methodism and Cornish pasties creating communities which share many of our Cornish traditions worldwide. Today in the Cornish Mining landscape you can find cafes and restaurants; Geevor’s Count House Café is perched overlooking the rugged cliffs and Geevor mine, which only closed as a working mine in 1990. You can also find activities such as underground mine tours, cycling mineral tramway routes, water sports, climbing and hiking trails over open, rugged moorland, or just sit back and enjoy the views. There really is something for everyone.

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Each Area of the World Heritage Site has its own Highlights unique personality and these feed into each other to tell the story of an industry and the people who built it, which, Take a tour of Geevor Tin Mine – one of the last in turn, helped shape the modern world. It is a story of Cornish mines to close; it is one of only a few mine technology, geology, geography, incredible innovations and sites with extensive collections of machinery open people. It is a story of the transfer of knowledge, skills, to the public in Cornwall. machinery, culture, food, sport, music and the religion. It See Levant Mine, which is spectacularly sited is also a story of great hardship and tough conditions; of thousands of people who risked their lives every day and on the cliff edge. Its has been some who lost them working in an industry which made restored by the Greasy Gang, and is driven by fortunes, into the millions for a select few. steam again. There are mining attractions in each of the ten Areas, Visit the Botallack Count House for displays each providing a unique experience. There are also of everything that made this place tick 150 years ago. countless remnants of this fascinating history scattered throughout the landscape waiting to be discovered. Walk through the remnants of the industry and for the You can walk, ride, cycle, or canoe through the former brave, climb down to the cliff engine houses. mining landscapes, be creatively inspired to paint, draw, HAYLE photograph them. Maybe you will discover you are Named after heyl, the Cornish word for estuary, this descended from some of these mining pioneers? Why not enjoy some Cornish food and beverages whilst sitting on Area is dominated by water: rivers, pools, sluicing ponds, a harbour wall where mining goods and supplies were quays, wharves, and, of course, the sea. Huge sand dunes exported and imported. Enjoy underground tours, walk lie between the town and the beautiful St Ives Bay, with through towns, mansions and beautifully crafted gardens the dark hills of the West Penwith Moors looming to founded on the fortunes of mining. the west. In the early 19th century, Hayle was the most important mining port and steam engine manufacturing It is a living landscape, we hope that by reading this centre in the world. you will feel inspired to explore the beautiful scenery, dig deep into the rich history and find your own part in this Highlights amazing, continually evolving story. Walk the King George V Memorial Walk from Phillack, Begin your journey to the heart of Cornwall and west Devon ... taking in the pretty gardens around Copperhouse Pool, ST JUST and looking out for Black Bridge. St Just a stone’s throw from Land’s End, this is the Watch the sunset over the old harbour, with the most westerly Area of the Site. St Just is characterised by mining on the edge of the earth, rich minerals and metals towering dunes and St Ives in the background. lie under its jagged rocks, stark moorland, and iconic Explore the area around Foundry Barn, and imagining clifftop engine houses perched above the Atlantic in some it in its booming, busy heyday. incredible locations. No wonder this dramatic setting has inspired generations of artists, writers and photographers Visit Hayle Heritage Centre to learn about the foundries and is one of the main filming locations for Poldark. which shaped Hayle.

Wheal Owles at Botallack © Colin Boucher

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Highlights Travel to Pool and visit Heartlands, Cornwall’s newest free visitor attraction. Covering 19 acres, there is so much to absorb, from the poetically landscaped botanical gardens to the interactive exhibitions that truly take you somewhere else.

Witness the unique collection of restored tin processing equipment at King Edward Mine, a former training centre for mining students dating from the turn of the 20th century—one of only a few remaining mine sites Heartlands - Robinsons Shaft © Ainsley Cocks with extensive collections of machinery in Cornwall.

TREGONNING & GWINEAR Visit East Pool Mine, and see the interiors of two The largest of the ten Areas, Tregonning and Gwinear complete engine houses with engines in situ. contains diverse landscapes ranging from the idyllic Visit Cornish Studies Library in which holds pastoral charms of the rural farmland in the west of the over 30,000 volumes covering Cornish history, Area to the atmospheric cliffscapes at Rinsey, with silent geography, industries, customs and highlights woods, exposed hills and subtropical gardens in between. Cornwall’s mining heritage.

Highlights Godolphin House provides a valuable insight into For a period in the 19th century Gwennap was the wealth of some of Cornwall’s most successful described as the “richest square mile anywhere on Earth”. industrialists and mine owners. Once the richest of all Cornwall’s mining districts, its fine houses, well-preserved industrial remains and dramatic Experience the panoramic views from Tregonning and mining landscapes combine to tell a compelling and Godolphin Hills, stretching as far as St Agnes and Hayle colourful story of Cornish Mining’s heyday. on a clear day. Highlights Explore the beautiful Rinsey headland and beach (at low tide), and nearby (not in the Site), Visit the famous Gwennap Pit, where John Wesley with its spectacular harbour that sweeps right into the preached to the Cornish Mining communities. centre of the village. Take in the sheer scale of past industrial activity at Poldice and Wheal Maid, which reveal the enormous WENDRON impact that mining has had in transforming the In the heart of beautiful countryside surrounded by landscape of this part of Cornwall. open moorland and gushing streams, Wendron is one of the smallest Areas in the Site – although its rich tin ST AGNES deposits meant it once had enough inhabitants to rival the Famous for its spectacular coastline and well-preserved combined population of Redruth and . Cornish engine houses perched on rugged cliffs – like the iconic Wheal Coates - this Area also has a rich heritage to Highlights explore inland, from the tin treatment works in narrow Follow in the footsteps of history down into Wheal stream valleys to the pretty village with its granite mine Roots – the 18th century tin mine at Poldark – to workers’ cottages, fine public buildings and luscious learn about Cornish mining history and find out what gardens. conditions were actually like for Cornish mine workers. Highlights Explore Porkellis Moor – a Cornwall Wildlife Trust Walk the stark coastline around Cligga Head, world reserve, where nature has reclaimed the ancient famous for its outstanding mineralogy and cliff mining landscape. workings.

Walk the footpaths around Carnmenellis (in the north Visit St Agnes Museum to discover more about the of the Area) and see the surviving mine workers’ area’s mining heritage. smallholdings. VALLEY & CHARLESTOWN CAMBORNE & REDRUTH From tranquil green woods to a bustling harbour The Camborne and Redruth Mining District became village, the landscapes of Luxulyan Valley and Charlestown significant internationally for the pioneering technological are very different. However, they share important progress made here, such as ’s steam similarities: both are stunningly beautiful places with engines, William Bickford’s invention of the safety fuse, fantastic walks and rich mining histories to explore, and (which saved countless miners’ lives), and William Murdoch’s both were created by two locally-prominent industrial house, being the first in the world to be lit by gas (in 1792). entrepreneurs.

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Highlights TAMAR VALLEY AND TAVISTOCK Stretching from the high granite ridge and exposed Visit Wheal Martyn; a fascinating insight into Cornwall’s moors of Kit Hill in Cornwall to the lush, deep wooded important billion pound china clay mining industry. valleys of the meandering Tamar River – and the farming Stand under the , which, despite being lands of the Devon plateau beyond – the Area spans the huge, manages to hide itself amongst the woodland border between Cornwall and Devon. until it is literally upon you! Highlights Experience the delightful Prideaux Woods (to the south-west of Luxulyan Valley) – a quarter of which is Discover the magical house, gardens, woodlands, and ancient woodland. riverside walks and quays of Cotehele, the historic seat of the Edgcumbe family.

This rugged, windswept and mostly treeless Area sits Visit Tavistock Museum and find out more about the high up in a remote but beautiful corner of Moor. Area’s heritage. Journey through the tree tops, canoe Rising dramatically from the surrounding plain, the granite along the , ride through the valley, enjoy dome of Caradon Hill dominates the Area and is encircled bushcraft and archery – all at the Tamar trails centre. by engine houses, chimney stacks, thousands of tonnes of waste rock from the various mines and quarries, and the Gaze out across the magnificent panoramas from the track bed of the & Caradon Railway. top of Kit Hill. Highlights The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site Office has released their first “Official Guide Visit Liskeard Museum and Minions Heritage Centre to to the Cornwall & West Devon Mining Landscape World discover more about the Area’s heritage. Heritage Site” to raise awareness and funds to support the Watch the sunset from the top of Caradon Hill, looking protection and conservation of the Site. It is £9.99 and is west across the golden moors and Siblyback Lake. available from a range of Cornish shops. Contact the team Visit the Prince of Wales Shaft at Phoenix United on social media to find out more. Mine, built for the last big pumping engine made in More information on the Cornish Mining World Heritage Cornwall (1907). Site can be found at www.cornishmining.org.uk

Wheal Coates - Towanroath Shaft engine house 7 © Ainsley Cocks

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