PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mining: Cultural Heritage (3 September 2024)

Our mining past has shaped the lives of people, communities and landscapes across the country. It is essential we record mining heritage, and crucially share it with future generations, in order not to forget its fundamental impact on our society, country and indeed the world. My department, working with our arm's length bodies and the heritage sector, promotes and safeguards our rich mining heritage in a variety of ways.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded more than £39 million to projects focused on the history of mining across the UK since 1999. This includes investing in internationally important heritage sites such as the Mining Institute in Newcastle, restoring landscapes impacted by mining, and funding grassroot community projects to collect oral histories of those involved in mining. In Cannock Chase Staffordshire, the Heritage Fund has invested more than £120,000 in projects focused on the area’s important coal mining history.

As the Government’s expert advisor on the historic environment, Historic England has also advised on and instigated a range of projects to record and preserve the history of mining. For example, the former mining village of Elsecar in South Yorkshire was one of the first places in England to be awarded Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) status by Historic England. Working with the community and the local authority, Historic England looked to document the tangible and intangible aspects of this area's rich mining heritage. Between 2016 and 2018, Historic England also funded The Chase Through Time project which explored the history and landscape of Cannock Chase, including its important mining and industrial heritage.

The National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield receives funding via the Science Museum Group, an arm's length body of DCMS. The museum is a centre of mining heritage for England, preserving and promoting the history of mining heritage and the stories of the people and communities affected by mining across the country.

Through our designation and planning system we will continue to protect the mining heritage of national and international importance. This includes the Cornwall & West Devon Mining Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which spreads across 20,000 hectares in the South West. The region used to produce most of the world's copper, tin and arsenic, and the World Heritage Site looks to preserve aspects of this history for local communities and visitors.