Heritage bid raises tourism hope

Cornwall's mines affected mining around the world

Cornwall's bid for World Heritage site status will be sent to the headquarters of Unesco on Monday.

If the bid is successful it will put the county on a par with Hadrian's Wall and Stonehenge and should encourage thousands of extra visitors.

The final decision from UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural organisation, is expected next year.

The bid, backed by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, details Cornwall's role in mining over 4,000 years.

'Unique landscape'

A management document explains how the historical mining areas from St Just in the west to the Tamar valley in the east will be looked after in the future.

For a time in the 18th and 19th centuries the mines of Cornwall and west Devon were the world's largest source of tin and copper.

Mrs Jowell said: "This unique industrial and cultural landscape survives as a tribute to one of the most rapid periods of economic, industrial and social development the UK has known."

Bid co-ordinator Deborah Boden said: "The hard rock miners and engineers of our region developed a distinctive and technologically-advanced method of deep mining which they transported around the world.

"Much of this legacy endures, both in Cornwall and West Devon and in places as far away as Australia, South America and South Africa."