Our World Heritage Site consists of the most authentic and historically significant concentrations of features within the Cornwall and west Devon mining landscapes, spanning the nominal date range 1700 to 1914.

The landscapes created here during this period are testament to the development of the profoundly important process of deep mining for metals, principally copper and tin. The industrialisation of this activity, and the innovations which occurred as a result, also had a fundamental influence on global mining during the nineteenth century.

There are ten separate Areas which together comprise the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site and these encompass former mining districts, ancillary industrial concentrations and associated settlements – mining towns and villages. These Areas have been shaped or otherwise influenced by the process of metalliferous mining or related activities, despite having developed separately.

The individual texts which can be downloaded by following the links below were prepared, in the main, as part of the Nomination process to achieve UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2004. These texts set out the geological background to deep mining in Cornwall and west Devon, explain the principal processes and technologies involved, and address the physical and cultural legacy of the industry.

In order to define the landscapes proposed for the World Heritage Site Nomination, a list of seven landscape ‘components’ was complied and these together encompass the principal themes relating to metal mining and its impact on places and people. Descriptions of these ‘components’ can be found under the final link: The sites and monuments that define the 'Cornish Mining' landscapes.

The story of 'Cornish Mining' includes the following topics; please click on the headings to find out more.

• Geology and landscapes - the backdrop against which 'Cornish Mining' took place and the mineralogical resource without which it could not have occurred
 
• History - industrialisation shaped and made possible our modern global society; Cornwall and west Devon were at the forefront of this process
 
• Technology and infrastructure - remarkable advances in steam engineering and mining and allied technologies were made in Cornwall and west Devon during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which were to be exported around the world

• Communities and culture - through mining, thousands of ordinary men, women and children contributed to the Industrial Revolution in Britain; they transformed the landscape, forged distinctive communities and transferred their mining skills and traditions internationally during a sustained period of migration
 
• The sites and monuments that define the 'Cornish Mining' landscapes - the distinctive and authentic remains of industrialisation can be found throughout Cornwall and west Devon. Imposing engine houses, mine sites, industrial harbours and tramroads, foundries, fuseworks, towns and villages, nonconformist chapels, grand houses and gardens of the mineral lords, mineworkers' smallholdings, technology schools and institutes are all recognisable features of the 'Cornish Mining' landscape