High Level Japanese Delegation Visits King Edward Mine Museum 20th July 2011

 
Cornwall’s status as a World Heritage site has attracted 28 distinguished visitors from Japan.
 
The party of 28, comprising Governors, Vice-Governors, Mayors and other senior officials, visited Cornwall on a fact finding mission to see the benefits of World Heritage Status.
 
Their use of the Cornish model for nominating a serial industrial-cultural landscape to UNESCO, was the motivation behind the visit to Cornwall.   Enthusiastic and supportive senior politicians have heavily engaged with the nomination process in Japan and they had expressed a wish, some time ago, that they would like to visit our Cornish mining sites
 
Their UK-wide tour started at the  Ironbridge Gorge Museum  in Shropshire, then went on to Liverpool via the famous Pontcysyllte canal viaduct with them spending the last two days in Cornwall.
 
The members of the party came mainly from the southern island of Kyushu, where from the 1850s Japan gradually industrialised, largely with the help of Scottish and English engineers and entrepreneurs.
 
The party, was led by Governor Ito of Kagoshima, the most southerly city in Japan, which is promoting the early industrial sites in Kyushu and the adjacent Prefecture of Yamaguchi, as a potential World Heritage Site as they contain outstanding examples of this early industrial period.
 
Their very full itinerary included visits to East Pool Mine, Heartlands and King Edward Mine in the Camborne area and Botallack, Levant and Geevor mines in the west.
 
Tony Brooks of King Edward Mine Museum said  ‘We were pleased and privileged to have had the opportunity to host the Japanese delegation and to be able to share some of our experience of  Cornwall’s Mining Heritage with them.  We were impressed by the seniority of the delegates and their very clear commitment of energy and particularly funding to the acquisition of World Heritage status.  A commitment that is not always apparent here in Cornwall.’