World Heritage Site nominations
Posted: 2011-03-23
Well, the long, long process of nominating new British sites for World Heritage Site status has finally come to an end. The final list of 11 sites, plus 2 that had already been nominated, were announced by John Penrose, Tourism and Heritage Minister. Though some of the final sites are pretty obvious choices, others will raise a few eyebrows.
Well, they raised mine. Historic cities like Lincoln and York were overlooked in favour of former colonial locations like the Turks and Caicos Islands, a cave complex in Gibraltar, and the island of St Helena, where Napoleon was imprisoned. Other oddities include Charles Darwin's laboratory, which had previously been nominated. Historically interesting, yes. A World Heritage site? Hmm ....
The final list of sites include:
- Chatham Dockyard and its Defences, Kent, England
- Creswell Crags, Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire, England
- Lake District, Cumbria
- Gorham’s Cave Complex, Gibraltar
- The Island of St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean
- Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, England
- Mousa, Old Scatness & Jarlshof, Shetland, Scotland
- Slate Industry of North Wales
- The Flow Country, Scotland
- The Forth Bridge (Rail), Scotland
- Turks & Caicos Islands, West Indies
- Twin Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, Sunderland and South Tyneside, England
- Darwin’s Landscape Laboratory, Kent, England
What happens next?
The new Tentative List will be sent to UNESCO, who intend to nominate successful new sites from 2012. Sites that are awarded a nomination slot will then be voted on by the World Heritage Committee to determine any new additions to the list of World Heritage Sites.
Resources:
Expert panel's full report - from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport
Interactive map of the UK's current World Heritage Sites - also DCMS
UNESCO World Heritage Centre - official UNESCO website
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