Gunnerside Gill: a picture of desolation |
All this visual and mental stimulation got me thinking. At
what point does an abandoned industrial landscape become a heritage asset? 40, 50 or a 100 years?
To my knowledge there are no modern industrial and scarred
landscape that have been retained, protected and are cherished. Old car plants have been demolished and been
covered by little boxes we call home.
Quarries are turned into The Eden Project. Power plants are decommissioned and turned
into Forest Parks. And many other such
places are secured behind high barbed wire fencing and a plethora of “keep out”
signs.
Above Gunnerside Gill |
What I do like about Gunnerside in particular is the fact
that it remains almost untouched by the modern approach to heritage and tourism
management. Yes, there’s one or two fading interpretative signs, footpaths criss-cross the area and the odd mineshaft is
fenced off for safety reasons, but otherwise it appears untouched since the day
those miners left for the last time. It’s
not unique. There are other examples of
an industrial landscape having been left to rot – so to speak. The Cornish Alps and the Coppermine valleys
above Coniston are two that spring to mind.
The latter is scattered with rusting vices, wagons from the mining
railway, giant cogs and ruined buildings all with a mountain backdrop and
overlooked by holiday cottages.
Starbucks of Gunnerside? |
You’ll be thinking, places like the Black Country Living
Museum and Beamish are major attractions but we all know these places have been
given the Disney makeover. As great a
day-out they are it’s obviously the romantic side of a past industrial
age. Even places like Liverpool Maritime
are surrounded by regeneration and modern glass and steel structures, providing
an atmosphere lacking any true sense of what once was. Just go to London Docklands on a wet grey day
and the cold cuts to the bone, not just due to temperature but largely because
the lack of any soul.
Coppermine Valley: A Future Mine Train Ride? |
In a country often accused of being strangled by health and safety
regulations I wonder how long it is before Gunnerside and Coppermines are
fenced off. Crumbling buildings pulled
down before they fall down, all the “dangerous” contraptions taken
away for scrap, mine shafts and levels sealed and gated. Or worse still the Disney machine comes in
and creates a mine train experience and converts peat drying rooms into coffee
shops fitted out with plasma interpretation screens. All of which leave little to the
imagination. Hopefully this never
happens and the ghosts of miners who toiled exploiting the earth for future economic
growth are left in peace forever disturbed only by walkers who make the effort
to climb out of the valleys.