precious-postcards

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

Much of the landscape of Cornwall and West Devon was transformed in the 18th and early 19th centuries as a result of the rapid growth of pioneering copper and tin mining. Its deep underground mines, engine houses, foundries, new towns, smallholdings, ports and harbours, and their ancillary industries together reflect prolific innovation which, in the early 19th century, enabled the region to produce two-thirds of the world’s supply of copper. The substantial remains are a testimony to the contribution Cornwall and West Devon made to the Industrial Revolution in the rest of Britain and to the fundamental influence the area had on the mining world at large. Cornish technology embodied in engines, engine houses and mining equipment was exported around the world. Cornwall and West Devon were the heartland from which mining technology rapidly spread.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1215

The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape was transformed in the 18th and 19th century by industrialised copper and tin mining. Steam technology was pioneered here. 

The remaining landscape is dotted with waste and spoil heaps and ruined mines, railways, canals and engine houses. Also, migrating Cornish miners have had influence on mines all over the world, leading to the survival of Cornish engine houses in Spain, Mexico, South Africa and Australia. 

The following 10 subsites are included in this WHS:

- St Just Mining District

- The Port of Hayle

- Tregonning and Gwinear Mining Districts with Trewavas 

- Wendron Mining District

- Camborne and Redruth Mining District with Wheal Peevor and Portreath Harbour 

- Gwennap Mining District with Devoran and Perran and Kennall Vale 

- St Agnes Mining District 

- The Luxulyan Valley and Charlestown 

- Caradon Mining District

- Tamar Valley Mining District with Tavistock 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/site.php?id=1215