IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section A

Abstract

Over the past century, an increasing number of locations where mineral extraction once dominated the landscape have assumed new identities as tourist destinations and UNESCO World Heritage sites. The process of WHS inscription has had a direct impact on how these sites are now being considered, conserved, and promoted. To be successful, WHS proposal narratives have had to adopt pre-existing UNESCO criteria for inscription, declaring exceptionality and prioritising notions of progress and technological achievement. In contrast, pollution from the same mining operations is framed through a separate scientific or political-administrative perspective, not treated as a type of cultural heritage or understood as an enduring legacy of the centuries-long history of human-nature interactions. This paper will present the Carnon river catchment, the principal drainage of the “Gwennap Mining District with Devoran, Perran & Kennall Vale”, a district of the Cornish Mining WHS, as a case study that exemplifies this issue and its consequences. Most of the Carnon river, identified in 2020 as the most polluted river in England, is not included in the WHS inscription. However, acid drainage, heavy metal contamination, and alluvial tailings from local mines that have been inscribed have been dramatically reshaping the Carnon’s physical nature and ecology over the past five centuries. The Carnon catchment is one of four case study sites for the AHRC and DFG funded project “Toxic Heritage: Socio-natural Landscapes of Extraction and Pollution in the Harz and Cornwall” that is developing an interdisciplinary, cutting-edge conceptualization of mining heritage underpinned by an ecological standpoint.