Heartlands, Cornwall

Cornwall and west Devon's mining landscape, shaped during a period of intense industrial activity, is testimony to one of the greatest periods of economic, technological and social development Britain has ever known.

From 1700 to 1914, the metal mining industry provided essential raw materials to feed the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and pioneered technological developments. For example, Richard Trevithick's advances in steam engine technology - originally motivated by the need to pump water out of mines, ultimately enabled the development of steam trains!

This and other new engineering solutions and inventions developed here were exported to mining regions across the world - including Australia, the Americas and South Africa - playing a key role in the growth of international economy. There are at least 175 places, across six continents, where Cornish mine workers took their skills, technology and traditions.

A number of metals were mined in the region, but the 'big three' were copper, tin and arsenic. Increasing competition through the expanding global mining industry reduced metal prices significantly during the latter half of the 19th century, forcing many local producers to close. Consequently, huge numbers of mine workers migrated to mines elsewhere in Britain and overseas; Cornwall alone is thought to have lost between 250,000 to 500,000 people from around 1815 to 1915, the period defined as 'the Great Migration'. Today, there are an estimated six million people worldwide descended from migrant Cornish mine workers!