World Heritage UK 2024 Annual Conference

WHUK’s 2024 Annual Conference will be held Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th October 2024.

The conference’s theme will be “Making the Most of World Heritage: Growing the Benefits, Avoiding the Pitfalls, Thinking Long Term”.

Monday:

• 9.30am – Registration/teas/coffees
• 10.00am – Welcomes from:
  • Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of World Heritage, UNESCO (video)
  • Sir Chris Bryant, Heritage Minister, DCMS (video)
  • Kate Kennally, Chief Executive, Cornwall Council
  • Paul Simons, Chair WHUK
• 10.15am – Putting World Heritage to Work: ‘Downstreaming’ and Mainstreaming for a Sustainable Future

Inscription on the World Heritage List is effectively a covenant with a notional global population to protect a site for eternity. Whilst this remains a worthy and important project for humanity, it comes with on-going resource commitments that have to be delivered at local level. But, maintaining these commitments is increasingly difficult in times of public sector cuts and a range of global uncertainties. While UNESCO has fashioned the term ‘upstreaming’ to facilitate more challenging nominations, attention is also needed ‘downstream’ on the post-inscription challenges of not only of maintaining a steady state of conservation, but also making sites financially sustainable and enabling them to increase their contributions to mainstream wider society.  This presentation explores the creative potential of World Heritage Sites and the ways by which they can be productive centres of the cultural economy and growth points in the socio-economic landscape.

Prof Mike Robinson, Professor of Cultural Heritage, Nottingham Trent University UK and Non-Executive Director of Culture, United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO

• 11.00am – Managing development vs. conservation – Dr James Legard, Associate Director, Harlow Consulting
• 11.30am – World Heritage as an economic regeneration driver – Jon Phipps, Director, Lathams
• 12.00pm – tea/coffee break
• 12.15pm – Planning/LUR Act implications to WHSs; Dr Helen Woodhouse from Historic England
• 12.35pm – Climate Change & Nature Recovery, Ian Marsh from the National Trust
• 1.00pm – Afternoon Q&A and wrap-up
• 1.30pm – Travel by coach to Geevor & Levant Tin Mines, including Cornish Pasty lunch
• 2.30pm – Site visits split into 2 groups; one to Geevor Tin Mine, including impact of WH on tourism; one to Levant Mine (National Trust); this involves a walk along the coastal path, from Geevor to Levant (and back again); this should take ~15 mins each way; please come prepared for the outdoors (walking shoes/boots, rain coat/anorak etc); here’s what you should expect terrain-wise…no guarantees that we’ll have weather as in these pictures!

• 4.00pm – Swap sites
• 5.15pm – Return to Redruth
• 6.15pm – Arrive at Penventon Park Hotel; short break before…
• 7.00pm – Social event at Penventon Park Hotel, introduced by Linda Taylor, Leader of Cornwall Council, followed by a hot buffet, and ending with ‘Tales from Geevor Mine’, with miners Grant Jelbert, Mike Sampson, Colin McClary and Steve Howis, facilitated by Clint Hosking, Geevor’s Learning and Outreach Manager
• 9.00pm – Day end

Tuesday:

• 9.30am – teas/coffees
• 10.00am – welcome from Cornwall Councilor & Cornish Mining WHS Chair Dave Crabtree
• 10.05am – welcome from WHUK’s President Chris Blandford
• 10.10am – Revitalising Redruth’s historic town centre: how Local Partners can benefit from WHS Status, with Tamsin Daniel, Protected and Historic Landscapes Manager, Cornwall Council
• 10.35am – Heritage & Place Making, Jason Jones-Hall, Five10Twelve (online)
• 11.00am – Alternative Futures for Heritage Assets, Patrick Newberry from Cornish Buildings Group and Adrian Farmer from Derwent Valley Mills WHS
• 11.45pm – tea/coffee break
• 12.00pm – Arts & Heritage, Laura Giles from Screen Cornwall, followed by Cornish Mining WHS’ new 10-minute film
• 12.30pm – Education and World Heritage, Alison Lightbown, Head of Schools and Community Partnerships, HRP and Tower of London
• 1.00pm – buffet lunch
• 1.45pm – Indirect benefits: Heritage & Wellbeing, with Amy McElhinney, Project Manager, Monumental Improvements, at Cornish National Landscape
• 2.10pm – Working in a World Heritage Site, with Steve Holley, Feasibility Study Manager at Cornish Metals
• 2.35pm – World Heritage Site Governance & Financial Resilience models – Tom Agar, Principal Consultant, CBA Consultants (online)
• 3.00pm – Meet the UK’s newest WHS – The Flow Country with Joe Perry, Climate Change Coordinator at the Highland Council
• 3.30pm – Final conference Q&A and wrap-up
• 4.00pm – Conference end; Visit to South Crofty Tin Mine, hosted by Cornish Metals – limited to 15 visitors, tickets available on a first come first served basis; this is a ~ 2 1/2 hour trip; needless to say, this site visit is for In-Person ticket holders; NOW FULL – SORRY

The conference will be held at the Penventon Park Hotel, Redruth, Cornwall

The conference will be hybrid, in-person as well as broadcast digitally via YouTube.

Tickets:

• In-Person for National Trust members £138 (you will need to bring your membership card with you)
• In-Person for non-National Trust members £150
• Digital £100 (access to talks via YouTube)

The conference is supported by Historic England, Cornish Mining WHS and Cornwall Council.

For information on Redruth, try Discover Redruth.

For suggestions for accommodation, you may wish to consider:

Penventon Park Hotel – are offering 20% off their flexible B&B rates; please call them on 01209 203000, and quote HERITAGEUK to get your discount

Premier Inn, Camborne – from £146 standard room advance rate for 2 nights room only; 10 mins drive from conference venue

Travelodge, Camborne – from £141 standard room saver rate for 2 nights room only; 9 mins drive from conference venue

Tricky’s, Redruth – B&B from £83 per night; 5 mins drive or 30 mins walk from conference venue

Wetherspoon’s The John Francis Basset Hotel, Camborne – from £126 room only for 2 nights, non-refundable rate; 15 mins drive to conference venue

For further suggestions, try the official Cornwall Tourist Board VisitCornwall website.

Access from Redruth railway station:

To save the climb over the bridge leave by the exit on the west bound side of the track, go to the bottom of the road and turn right. Carry on straight into the Town Centre and turn left into the pedestrianised town centre where you will see the miners statue. At the bottom of the road cross straight over, head up the hill and The Penventon is on the right hand side.

Driving from Camborne’s Premier Inn (Avers Junction which is closed over the A30 until November):

From the Premier Inn, join the A30 and head East bound, take the first exit and stay in the left hand lane. Continue in left hand lane and when you see KFC and Costa on the right, turn left at the traffic lights. Continue along this road for approx. 1.75miles until you come to a roundabout, take the second exit into Redruth. After about half a mile The Penventon is on the left hand side opposite a car park on the right as the signage can be missed.

The annual conference is kindly supported by: