World Heritage In The UK - What’s it All About? Henry Owen-John Head of International Advice Historic England

“building peace in the minds of men and women”

Recognition of the devastating effect of war on heritage and on communities that had already suffered human tragedy led to 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict Custom House – cause celebre. John Foster built 1828-39. Bomb damage. Demolished controversially in 1948

Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972 (the World Heritage Convention) Ratified by UK in 1984 1073 World Heritage Sites; 31, mainly cultural, in the UK;19 wholly or partly in England UK tentative list of potential WHS nominations last reviewed 2011. Lake District inscribed this year. Jodrell Bank Observatory to be submitted next January.

The World Heritage Convention Article 4 Each State Party to this Convention recognizes that the duty of ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage referred to in Articles 1 and 2 and situated on its territory, belongs primarily to that State. It will do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own resources and, where appropriate, with any international assistance and co-operation, in particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical, which it may be able to obtain. Ref also Article 6

The World Heritage Convention Articles 5 and 6 Article 6: “…a world heritage for whose protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole to co-operate” Article 5 requires all countries to adopt a general policy which aims to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programmes

UK World Heritage Sites The first six UK WHSs were inscribed in 1986 and included Stonehenge & Avebury, Ironbridge Gorge and the Giant’s Causeway. The nominations were made by experts with little public consultation By contrast the Lake District was added to the list this year after a comprehensive programme of public engagement

English Lake District World heritage Site

Outstanding Universal Value Three Pillars Meeting the criteria – why is this place so special, what makes it outstanding? Authenticity and Integrity Protection and management Masterpiece of human creative genius; important interchange of human values over time or within specific area; unique testimony to culture or civilisation living or dead; architecture etc that illustrates significant stages in history; outstanding example of settlement landuse etc

Lake District OUV Natural landform shaped by farming tradition creating a living landscape of “harmonious beauty” This landscape provided the inspiration for writers and artists… …and for the development of the conservation movement

Hayle, Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape WHS

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscapes WHS: Hayle Harbour - Attributes Cornwall’s principal mining port which exported copper ore to the South Wales smelters, importing much of the Welsh coal which fuelled the Cornish steam revolution and was the means by which many of its beam engines were shipped to the far corners of the World. Location of two (of three) of Cornwall’s principal iron foundries creating the greatest steam engine manufacturing centre in the C19th world.

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscapes WHS: Hayle Harbour - Attributes Massive, landform-scale, maritime infrastructure of extensive quays, wharves and massive sluicing ponds. Unique example of twin ‘company’ industrial ‘new towns’ of Foundry and Copperhouse, these being wholly the product of their industrial past and maritime location, fringing the southern edge of the Hayle estuary in a distinctly linear character

Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City WHS: SOUV and Attributes Liverpool was a major centre generating innovative technologies and methods in dock construction and port management in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. It thus contributed to the building up of the international mercantile systems throughout the British Commonwealth. Liverpool is an outstanding example of a world mercantile port city, which represents the early development of global trading and cultural connections throughout the British Empire.

Liverpool OUV and Attributes