Dates of request for additional information and of receipt from State Party: ICOMOS has sent a letter on 9 Cornwall and West Devon Mining November 2005 and the State Party has provided Landscape (United Kingdom) information on 23 December 2005. Consultations: ICOMOS has consulted its International No 1215 Scientific Committee on Historic Gardens – Cultural Landscapes and TICCIH. IUCN has provided an evaluation of the natural attributes of the site. Literature: Extensive literature on Cornish mining, mining 1. BASIC DATA engines, mining processes, mining transport, mining State Party: United Kingdom settlements, mining social structures, the contribution of Cornwall to the industrial revolution, geology & Name of property: Cornwall and West Devon Mining mineralogy and the Cornish Diaspora, particularly in the Landscape Journal of the Trevithick Society (1973 -), from local Location: Cornwall and Devon Counties publishers such as D Bradford Barton Ltd., Twelveheads Press, Landfall Publications, and Dyllansow Truran, by Date received Prof Roger Burt between 1969 and 1987 on the by the World Heritage Centre: 25 January 2005 organisation of Cornish mines; also unpublished thesis by Included in the Tentative List: 21 June 1999 G Burke, The Cornish Miner and the Cornish Mining Industry 1870-1921, 1981. International Assistance from the World Heritage Fund for preparing the nomination: No Date of ICOMOS approval of this report: 10 April 2006 Category of property: In terms of the categories of cultural property set out in 3. THE PROPERTY Article 1 of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, this is a Description site. In terms of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (2 The extensive nominated site consists of the most February 2005) paragraph 47, it is also a cultural authentic and historically important surviving components landscape. of the Cornwall and West Devon mining landscape from around 1700 to 1914. The area covers 19,808 ha. There is Brief description: no Buffer zone. There are ten areas representing the Much of the landscape of Cornwall and West Devon was heartlands of former mining districts spread throughout transformed in the 18th and early 19th centuries as a result Cornwall County and just over the border into West Devon of the rapid growth of pioneering copper and tin mining. County. These areas share a common identity in being part Its deep underground mines, engine houses, foundries, new of the overall massive exploitation of minerals in the early th towns, smallholdings, ports and harbours, and ancillary 19 century. Having developed separately from one industries together reflect prolific innovation that drove another, they also display distinct differences reflecting the this crucible of industrial development which in the early location of mineral ores as well as the relative 19th century produced two thirds of the world’s supply of independence of the landowners and merchants who copper. The substantial remains are a testimony to the controlled mining, banking and ancillary industries. contribution Cornwall and West Devon made to the Together the areas form a unified cultural landscape that industrial revolution in the rest of Britain and to the reflects all aspects of the mining industry – both fundamental influence the area had on the mining world at technological and social– mine sites, mine transport, large. ancillary industries, mining settlements, smallholdings, great houses & estates and mineralogical sites. That Cornish technology embodied in engines, engine houses landscape is in part relict, where mines and mine transport and mining equipment were exported around the world. for instance, are no longer worked, and part evolving, Cornwall and West Devon were the heartland from which where for example the agricultural landscape which mining technology rapidly spread. When Cornish and supported the mining settlements are still working places, West Devon mining declined in the 1860s, large numbers as are the rural settlements and towns. of miners emigrated to work and live in mining communities based on Cornish traditions, in for instance The mines in Cornwall and West Devon produced copper, South Africa, Australia, and Central and South America, tin and arsenic. The combined output dominated the th where Cornish engine houses still survive. worlds’ supply in the early 19 century. The success of the mining industry was based on technological innovation which made feasible deep-shaft mining. Local pioneers 2. ACTIONS invented the steam engine for pumping water out of the mines and then in response to the expense of shipping coal Background: This is a new nomination. On 31st March into the region made the engines much more efficient 2006, the State Party has sent information on a through the development of high-pressure steam pumping development project planned for the Centre of Hayle technology. The safety fuse for blasting was also Harbour. developed locally. Date of the Technical Evaluation Mission: 19-24 Subsidiary industries contributed to the overall prosperity. September 2005 Much of the ore was dressed and smelted locally. The 125 steam engines and rail tracks, rail engines and barges Botallack and Levant mines demonstrate the use of steam needed for the growth of the industry were also produced power for ore-processing. The dramatically sited mines locally in foundries such as Perran, Harvey's, Holman’s, have attracted generations of writers and artists. The area Sara’s, Mount Tavy, Bedford and Charlestown. has mineralogical significance. Noted individual sites are: Effective use of the technology demanded good transport -Botallack mine, with mine shafts running under the ocean and a tight social structure. A high-quality transport and on the cliffs a Crowns engines and at surviving network involving canals, railways and tramways arsenic-refining works. connecting mines to ports was constructed in the early 19th -Levant mine, with the oldest surviving Cornish engine century. This included ports and quays at Hayle, Portreath, from 1840. Devoran, Charlestown and Morwelham; tramways and railways at Poldice Plateway, Redruth & Chasewater -Geevor mine, a 20th century tin mine with well preserved Railway, Liskeard & Caradon Railway and the East earlier remains including a Brunton calciner. Cornwall Mineral Railway. -Kenidjack valley, with remains of many water driven The social structure that emerged was a dispersed one with crushing mills no one central large town. This reflected the disposition of granite outcrops where minerals could be mined and the Port of Hayle mobilisation of private capital. Large new settlements On the north Cornish coast, this was the main port for the grew at Camborne, Carharrack and Minions and many Cornish mining industry. Large amounts of coal and smaller towns and villages were also built with rows of timber were imported through the port, and copper ore terraced houses clustered around groups of mines, exported. Extensive quays and wharves survive largely developed by entrepreneurs. intact in a dramatic open estuarine setting flanked by villas To support the needs of these urban areas, large parts of for managerial classes and terraced housing for workers. the uplands (around 50,000 ha) were turned from grazing Hayle also includes the remains of two iron foundries, into smallholdings, patchworks of small fields demarcated Harvey’s, where the largest mine steam engines in the by hedge banks, with small one-storey, usually self-built, world were produced, and the Cornwall Copper company. cottages. Both generated substantial, distinguished urban buildings. The mine owners lived in large houses, many developing The port was served by a Copperhouse canal constructed horticulturally important ornamental gardens (some of in 1769/87, and a railway constructed from 1834 with a which are outside the nominated area). The owners bridge of 1837 and a swinging bridge across the canal. exercised power through their agents and stewards. Many of these men had their authority reinforced thorough their Tregonning and Gwinear with Trewavas involvement in the non-Conformist Methodist chapels that Some of the richest and deepest tin and copper mines are were built in nearly all the mining settlements. The found in this area. Together with a very well preserved dominant outward manifestation of the industry were the patchwork of miners’ smallholdings around Tregonning large three storey engine houses with tall chimneys that Hill, the area has larger mining terraces built with large rose above the mine workings, peppering the landscape dressed granite block facades and examples of early mine particularly in the central area around Camborne and adventurers’ houses. Notable individual sites are: Redruth. Around three thousand were constructed across the region. Robustly constructed of local stone with slate -Wheal Vor mine, the richest mine in Cornwall employing roofs, almost two hundred have survived. Four still have at it height some 1,100 people. beam engines in situ for winding or pumping. -Extensive remains of steep, open cast mining in Great The nominated areas are the following mining districts: Wheal Fortune. • St Just -Godolphin House dating from the 17th century, the home • Port of Hayle to the mines adventurer Sir Francis Godolphin, and • Tregonning and Gwinear with Trewavas Trevarno House home of the Wallis, and later Bickford- • Wendron Smith, mining families. • Camborne and Redruth with Wheal Peevor and Wendron Portreath Harbour • Gwennap