OBJECTIVE ONE FUNDING TO PROMOTE CORNWALL AND SCILLY’S DISTINCTIVE HERITAGE

Cornish Mining World Heritage Site Bid

The bid for Cornwall’s historic mining landscapes to be recognised as one of the world’s most important heritage sites has received a boost with the announcement of £175,000 worth of Objective One funding. This will swell the bid fund to £350,000, with commitments already in place from English Heritage, Cornwall and Devon County Council, the District Councils, Tamar Valley Countryside Service and The National Trust.

Already on the UK Government’s short list of 25 proposed World Heritage sites, the nomination will be considered by the United Nations Education Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2004. If successful this will place Cornish Mining on a par with such international treasures as Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

Much of Cornwall’s present day landscape is the product of a vast mining industry which helped to drive the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1860s Cornwall dominated world production of copper and tin and its miners and engineers were at the cutting edge of mining technology, taking their expertise and machinery to every corner of the hard rock mining world - Australia, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, the USA and the countries of Central and South America.

Project Co-ordinator Jeanette Ratcliffe says, “The strong reminders of this important past include engine houses, mine sites, foundry and fuseworks buildings, mining towns and villages, hundreds of chapels, glorious houses and gardens of the mineral lords, modest small-holdings of the ordinary miner, technical schools and geological collections for the aspiring student. Many of these Cornish scenes are mirrored in settlements across the mining world.”

Objective One funding for this bid reflects the fact that World Heritage Site status will bring tangible economic benefits to Cornwall. It will draw down conservation funding, make heritage sites more accessible to the public, and be a major asset in international tourism marketing. It will recognise Cornwall’s unique role in shaping the modern industrial world.

Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey

Running alongside the World Heritage Site Bid is the Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey, jointly funded by Objective One and English Heritage to the tune of £300,000. This project is designed to inform the economic regeneration that will take place in the region’s towns as part of the Objective One Programme.

Much of Cornwall and Scilly’s strong cultural identity is embodied in its historic towns and villages, with their long and complex histories and having produced a wealth of historical and archaeological features. Most towns retain their original plan, with buildings arranged along and around streets and open spaces dating back as far as the medieval period. Having resisted Despite alterations and additions the historic fabric is well preserved, with the majority of town centre buildings being of dating from the 17th to 19th century date, and some key examples of surviving key medieval buildings surviving.

In additional to this good preservation of the visible historic fabric, there is also the possibility that many subsurface remains still exist, such as the footings of buildings and other medieval or even earlier features.

Jeanette Ratcliffe says, “The towns and villages of Cornwall and Scilly represent what is distinctive about Cornish and Scillonian culture. Though they share common characteristics, each has an individual quality defined by its location and setting, historical development and past and current use.”

The Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey will pull together information about the archaeology, architecture and development of 18 key towns to promote understanding of their special characters and atmospheres. Survey work will identify the condition of the historic environment, what it is important to preserve and what may be traded for new development, and the historical influences which should be recognised. Regeneration schemes can then be designed which draw on these strengths, creating sustainable, prosperous and distinctive urban environments.

Both of these projects are being implemented by Cornwall Archaeological Unit, part of the County Council’s Historic Environment Section. They will be carried out in close collaboration with local authorities, conservation and economic development agencies and local communities and groups.

Both also place a strong emphasis on making information accessible to the public, so a public computer terminal is being set up within the project offices, and web sites will be created to display results. Principal Archaeologist Jeanette Ratcliffe is the Project Co-ordinator for both, and is currently appointing staff and setting up the project offices. A public launch of each project will take place once this initial stage has been completed, later this summer.