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  BLAENAVON IRONWORKS MUSEUM, TORFAEN, SOUTH WALES CULTURAL HERITAGE LANDSCAPE - UNITED KINGDOM UNESCO MISSIONS - WHITEHALL COURT LONDON SW1A 2EL - NATIONAL COMMISSIONERS 2024 TO 2025 A TO Z OF MISSIONS

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Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, in and around Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales, was inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Blaenavon Ironworks, now a museum, was a major centre of iron production using locally mined or quarried iron ore, coal and limestone. Raw materials and products were transported via horse-drawn tramroads, canals and steam railways. The Landscape includes protected or listed monuments of the industrial processes, transport infrastructure, workers' housing and other aspects of early industrialisation in South Wales.

LOCATION

 

The Industrial Revolution in Britain was based on iron and coal, the main products of the South Wales valleys. Production of pig iron in the region grew from 39,600 tons in 1796 to 666,000 tons in 1852, and the iron was used to build railways, factories and engines around the world. Blaenavon was an important centre of coal mining and iron making in South Wales during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Blaenavon Ironworks was opened around 1789 and caused development of the mines, quarries and housing.

Blaenavon lies at the upper end of the Afon Lwyd valley in South Wales. The World Heritage Site is based on the large area of land that the Blaenavon Company leased in 1789. The site is on the north eastern rim of the South Wales Coalfield. The area is an excellent example of an industrial landscape formed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by mining and iron making activities. The 3,290 hectares (8,100 acres) site contains the Blaenavon Ironworks and the Big Pit coal mine, surrounded by mines and quarries, manufacturing plant, railways, canal, workers' housing and social infrastructure.

ELEMENTS OF THE LANDSCAPE

The Blaenavon Ironworks operated from 1789 to 1902. Today there are remains of six blast furnaces, cast houses, boiler rooms, engine houses, the water balance tower used to raise and lower trams, and workers' housing around Stack Square. The remains of the furnaces from the late 18th century and the 19th century are well preserved. Other elements include the 1839 water balance tower, two casting houses, ruined kilns, the base of the massive chimney of the blowing engine, the cast-iron structure that carried the blast pipes to the furnaces, and ruins of workers' housing.

The Big Pit was the last deep coal mine to remain operational in the area. The surface buildings, winding gear and underground workings are still in excellent condition. The Big Pit coal mine, now managed by Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, was worked from around 1860 until 1980. The original pithead buildings have been preserved, including the head frame, winding engine and baths. The Big Pit Colliery was reopened as a museum in 1983. Visitors may take an underground tour. In 2005 it won the Gulbenkian Prize for museum of the year.

Extant buildings from the early industrial period include Ty-Mawr (Big House) also known as Blaenavon House, built for Iron Master, Samuel Hopkins, in 1791, worker's housing terraces, St. Peter's Church (1804), St. Peter's School (1816) and the Blaenavon Workmen's Hall (1894). Other elements of the Industrial Landscape are the mines and quarries from which coal, iron ore, fire clay and limestone were extracted. There are traces of horse-drawn railways, tunnels and inclines that were used to carry iron ore, coal and limestone to the ironworks, and to carry pig iron to the Garnddyrys Forge. Wrought iron was taken from the forge to Llanfoist on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal for transport to other parts of Britain and the world. There are walks and trails along which visitors may explore the Landscape. Waymarked footpaths follow the tracks of the earliest iron railways. The Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway was once an important transport facility. The steam railway has been restored and has a station in the centre of the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


IMPORTANCE

A 33 square kilometres (13 sq mi) area of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2000. Blaenavon was the first "cultural landscape" to be recognised in the United Kingdom. About £40 million was spent in the first ten years. The Landscape meets two criteria for a World Heritage Site.

- Criterion (iii): An exceptional illustration in material form of the social and economic structure of 19th century industry.

- Criterion (iv): An outstanding and remarkably complete example of a 19th-century industrial landscape.

In 2013, retrospective statements of Outstanding Universal Value were added to the listing:

- Evidence of tangible and intangible heritage of the development of early industrial society.

- Outstanding relict landscape of the combined efforts of nature and man.

- Evidence of the area’s international importance in iron making and coal mining in the late 18th and early 19th century.

- Development of transport systems in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

The boundary of the property, defined by historical land ownership, landscape features and exclusion of areas that lack historical authenticity, includes the main monuments of the mining and iron working settlement, in remarkably good condition, and the remains of mine, quarry and transport infrastructure. It is possible to trace the complex industrial process and its social aspects in the early Industrial Revolution.

 

 

 

 

The Torfaen County Borough Council, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority and Monmouthshire County Council have statutory planning responsibility for parts of the Landscape. The development plans of these authorities aim to protect the property, which is also covered by provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act (1980) and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas Act, 1990). The Blaenavon Town Centre and Cwmavon are conservation areas, and there is a proposal to make Forgeside and Glantorfaen another conservation area. A World Heritage Centre was opened for visitors in 2008. The Landscape is managed by the Blaenavon Partnership, which involves various authorities, agencies and other bodies and is led by Torfaen County Borough Council. A World Heritage Day is held in June each year. A cost-benefit analysis of the world heritage status has shown that it had succeeded in regenerating the area.

 

 

 


PRESERVATION

The Landscape includes 24 scheduled monuments and 82 listed buildings, of which the most important are publicly owned. At the time of inscription as a World Heritage Site many of the elements were vulnerable due to lack of conservation. Since then there has been extensive work on conserving the ironworks, Big Pit and other historic elements of Blaenavon and the surrounding landscape. There are continued efforts to ensure that new development does not reduce the value and appearance of the Landscape.

The Torfaen County Borough Council, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority and Monmouthshire County Council have statutory planning responsibility for parts of the Landscape. The development plans of these authorities aim to protect the property, which is also covered by provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act (1980) and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas Act, 1990). The Blaenavon Town Centre and Cwmavon are conservation areas, and there is a proposal to make Forgeside and Glantorfaen another conservation area. A World Heritage Centre was opened for visitors in 2008. The Landscape is managed by the Blaenavon Partnership, which involves various authorities, agencies and other bodies and is led by Torfaen County Borough Council. A World Heritage Day is held in June each year. A cost-benefit analysis of the world heritage status has shown that it had succeeded in regenerating the area.

Architects Purcell Miller Tritton won the Gold Medal for Architecture at the National Eisteddfod of Wales of 2008 for their work on the World Heritage Centre for visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity".

 

 

 

 

 



 The UK's National Commission for UNESCO (UKNC) was established in 1946. it is held to be a vital part of UNESCO’s unique global network of 190+ national cooperating bodies known as National Commissions.

The National Commission is a constitutional part of the UK’s membership of UNESCO. They are an independent, not-for-profit organisation, supported by grant funding from the UK government.

Their work is embedded in UNESCO’s global goal of building lasting peace through the ‘intellectual and moral solidarity of humankind’, relying on the common goods of education, science, culture, and communication & information, free from discrimination. This is enshrined within UNESCO's founding Constitution of 1945.

 

According to their website, the UK's National Commission for UNESCO is governed by a Board of Non-Executive Directors, led by their Chair. Each Non-Executive Director is formally appointed by the FCDO and is a specialist in one of UNESCO’s core programme areas. The day-to-day operations of the Commission are undertaken by a Secretariat, led by our Chief Executive and Secretary-General.

The National Commission works in collaboration to the UK Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, including the UK Ambassador.

 

 

SITES IN OR ASSOCIATED WITH THE UNITED KINGDOM

 

There are 33 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories. The UNESCO list contains one designated site in both England and Scotland (the Frontiers of the Roman Empire) plus eighteen exclusively in England, five in Scotland, four in Wales, one in Northern Ireland, and one in each of the overseas territories of Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Pitcairn Islands, and Saint Helena. There is an additional site partly in the UK territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, but is regarded to be part of Cyprus's list. The first sites in the UK to be inscribed on the World Heritage List were Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast; Durham Castle and Cathedral; Ironbridge Gorge; Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey; Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites; and the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd in 1986. The latest sites to be inscribed were The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales and Bath Spa (as a component of the Great Spas of Europe) in July 2021.

The constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (commonly referred to as UNESCO) was ratified in 1946 by 26 countries, including the UK. Its purpose was to provide for the "conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance of books, works of art and monuments of history and science". The UK contributes £130,000 annually to the World Heritage Fund which finances the preservation of sites in developing countries. Some designated properties contain multiple sites that share a common geographical location or cultural heritage.

The United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO advises the British government, which is responsible for maintaining its World Heritage Sites, on policies regarding UNESCO. The UK National Commission for UNESCO conducted research in 2014–15 on the Wider Value of UNESCO to the UK, and found that the UK's World Heritage Sites generated an estimated £85 million from April 2014 to March 2015 through their association with the global network.

World Heritage Site selection criteria i–vi are culturally related, and selection criteria vii–x are the natural criteria. Twenty-three properties are designated as "cultural", four as "natural", and one as "mixed". The breakdown of sites by type was similar to the overall proportions; of the 1,121 sites on the World Heritage List, 77.5% are cultural, 19% are natural, and 3.5% are mixed. St Kilda is the only mixed World Heritage Site in the UK. Originally preserved for its natural habitats alone, the site was expanded in 2005 to include the crofting community that once inhabited the archipelago; the site became one of only 25 mixed sites worldwide. The natural sites are the Dorset and East Devon Coast; Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast; Gough and Inaccessible Islands; and Henderson Island. The rest are cultural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TENTATIVE LISTINGS UK 2023

 

- Birkenhead the People’s Park [Cultural]
- East Atlantic Flyway – England East Coast Wetlands [Natural]
- The Flow Country [Natural]
- Gracehill Moravian Church Settlements [Cultural, Transnational]
- Little Cayman Marine Parks and Protected Areas [Natural]
- York [Cultural]
- The Zenith of Iron Age Shetland [Cultural]

 

 

ACCREDITED LISTINGS UK

 

BLAENAVON - NATIONAL COAL MUSEUM, IRONWORKS, CULTURAL LANDSCAPE, SOUTH WALES

STONEHENGE - PREHISTORIC, NEOLITHIC STONE CIRCLES, SALISBURY PLAIN, WILTSHIRE

WESTMINSTER ABBEY - HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON, ENGLAND

 

 

INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITED LISTINGS

 

ACROPOLIS - ATHENS, ANCIENT GREEKS, PARTHENON, TEMPLE ATHENA NIKE

ANGKOR WAT - HINDU BUDDHIST TEMPLE RELIGIOUS COMPLEX, CAMBODIA

CHICHEN ITZA - ANCIENT MAYAN CITY, YUCATAN PENINSULA, MEXICO

COLOSSEUM - ROMAN HISTORIC CITY CENTRE, ROME, PANTHEON, ITALY

EASTER ISLAND - RAPA NUI, POLYNESIAN HEAD STATUES, PACIFIC OCEAN

GREAT WALL OF CHINA - 3RD CENTURY BC EMPEROR QIN SHI HUANG & MING DYNASTY

MACHU PICCHU - PYRAMID, PERU, INCAN LOST CITY, ANDES

PETRA - TREASURY, AL-KHAZNEH, SIQ GORGE, NABATAEANS, SOUTHERN JORDAN

PYRAMIDS - GREAT SPHINX, MEMPHIS NECROPOLIS, GIZA, EGYPT

TAJ MAHAL - MAUSOLEUM BUILT BY SHAH JAHAN, AGRA, INDIA

VATICAN CITY - THE WORLD'S SMALLEST, HOLIEST CHRISTIAN STATE

 

TENTATIVE LISTINGS

 

PORT ROYAL - JAMAICAN SUNKEN CITY 1692, PIRATES HISTORY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTACTS


98, 3 Whitehall Ct, London
SW1A 2EL, UK
+44 (0) 203 4567 6789
info@unesco.org.uk

 

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCE

 

https://unesco.org.uk/

https://www.visitblaenavon.co.uk/en

https://unesco.org.uk/our-sites/world-heritage-sites/blaenavon-industrial-landscape

https://www.visitblaenavon.co.uk/en

https://unesco.org.uk/our-sites/world-heritage-sites/blaenavon-industrial-landscape

https://unesco.org.uk/

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A FULLER UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT - Due to the pace of development, sometimes significant gaps exist in the records, as to how man leapfrogged from coal fires, to steam, to electricity, computers and finally the renewable energy age, to combat climate change.

 

Major sites such as Blaenavon Ironworks and Big Pit, together with the wider landscape with its relicts of mineral exploitation, manufacturing, transport and settlements together tell the story of the iron and coal industry that was pre-eminent in south Wales in the 19th century.

The ironworks, which dates back to 1789, includes 18th and 19th century furnaces, casting houses, calcining kilns, workers cottages and the iconic water balance that dates back to 1839. Meanwhile, Big Pit, the last deep mine in the area, presents visitors with a unique tour through the underground workings, as well as allowing them to explore the surface buildings. Both of these sites are set within a landscape that provided all the materials needed for iron production; the coal, iron ore, fireclay for bricks and limestone, all of which were transported across the hillsides on a primitive iron-railed railway which also connected the works to the canal and form there, the rest of the world.

At the same time, the town and the reminders of lost communities across the hillsides, tell the story of the people who drove the industrial revolution. The investors, who risked their money in starting the iron industry in the area, the workers who brought skills as well as physical labour to develop the industries, and those who took those lessons with then as they left in search of new challenges, establishing industry across the world. Blaenavon town has notable buildings such as St. Peter’s Church, built by the ironmasters in 1804; the Blaenavon Workmen’s Hall, built by workers’ subscriptions in 1894; and St. Peter’s School, built by the ironmaster’s sister, Sarah Hopkins, in 1816.

Taking all of these authentic elements together, and it is easy to see how this is one of the prime areas in the world where the full social, economic and technological process of industrialisation through iron and coal production can be understood.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

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