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Cornish Studies Library – Cornwall and Devon Mining

Cornish Studies Library

based at the Cornwall Centre in Alma Place, Redruth, this is Cornwall Council’s largest library of books and printed resources on Cornwall. The collection of over 30,000 volumes covers Cornwall’s history, geography, industries, customs and other aspects of Cornish life. Open to everyone, the collection also highlights Cornwall’s mining industry through books, photographs, maps, newspapers and journals.

Cornish Studies Library 01209 216760

Cornwall and Devon Mining

Wheal Trewavas

The landscapes of Cornwall and west Devon were radically reshaped during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by deep-lode mining for predominantly copper and tin. The mines, engine houses, foundries, new towns, smallholdings, ports, harbours, and ancillary industries so created, together reflect prolific industrial innovation which was to have a significant influence on the development of our modern industrial society.

The best surviving of these metal mining landscapes are recognised within the newly designated Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, or ‘Cornish Mining’, as inscribed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in July 2006. This places the historic mining landscapes on a par with such international treasures as Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

The Cornish Mining World Heritage Site is a serial inscription comprising ten principal Areas from St Just in the far west of Cornwall to Tavistock in west Devon. Together these total 19,700 hectares making this the largest World Heritage Site in the UK.