World Heritage

Tentative List

A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties, which a State Party intends to consider for nomination during the following years. The UK Tentative List was drawn up in 1999. States Parties are encouraged to re-examine and re-submit their Tentative List at least every ten years.

For additional information on the Tentative List please visit the website of the
Department of Culture, Media and Sport
World Heritage Centre - Tentative List

England

Chatham Naval Dockyard
Criteria C (ii), (iii), and (iv)
Chatham Dockyard is the supreme example of a Royal dockyard largely unaltered from the age of sail, at a period when the Royal Navy was instrumental in Britain's global influence and when, before the full impact of the Industrial Revolution, dockyards were the largest industrial centres in Europe.
Darwin's Home and Workplace: Down House and Environs
Criteria C (iii) and (vi)
Down House was Charles Darwin's home from 1842 until his death in 1882. Here he studied, thought and wrote his great influential works including The Origin of Species. The grounds and surrounding landscape provided much of the inspiration for his revolutionary insights of the natural world, ecology and bio-diversity, which continue to have significant influence today.
The Lake District
Criteria C (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi), Criteria N (i), (iii) and (iv)
The Lake District is outstandingly beautiful. It possesses a unique combination of spectacular mountains and rugged fells, pastoral and wooded valleys, and numerous lakes, tarns and rivers. The character of the area is inseparable form its cultural history, and the personalities, life styles and traditions of the Lake District people. Each valley has its own individuality, and the resulting diversity of the landscape contributes enormously to the quality of the area as a whole.
Manchester and Salford (Ancoats, Castlefield and Worsley)
Criteria C (ii), (iii) and (iv)
Manchester is the archetype city of the Industrial Revolution. It witnessed the creation of Britain's first industrial 'true' canal. Britain's first mainline, inter-city passenger railway and the country's first industrial suburb based on steam power; it is on these three themes that the proposed World Heritage Site designation concentrates. Thus the city centre itself, which is arguably the finest expression of a Victorian commercial district in England, complements the present nomination but is not included within the boundary of the proposed site.
Monkwearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites
Criteria C (iii), (iv) and (vi)
The twin Saxon monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow - 'one monastery in two places' - were the creation of one man, Benedict Biscop, who had travelled abroad (to Rome and elsewhere) in the 650s and had returned determined to build a monastery 'in the Roman manner'. The historian Bede was a member of the community from the age of seven, having been entrusted to Benedict Biscop c. 680.
The New Forest
Criteria C (ii), (iii) and (v), Criteria N (iii) and (iv)
The New Forest is an area of outstanding wildlife and landscape interest fashioned by human intervention and use over thousands of years. It extends to about 580 square kilometres, based on the New Forest Heritage Area boundary. The human processes that have shaped the landscape over time are well demonstrated by the rich archaeological heritage, particularly from the Bronze Age and Roman period, and a documented history going back to the 11th century. An extensive dispersed pastoral system is still practised today over a large part of the area. The landscapes and habitats themselves also provide an important testimony to this interaction.
The Great Western Railway: Paddington-Bristol (selected parts)
Criteria C (i), (ii), (iv) and (vi)
The Great Western Railway between London and Bristol was authorised by Parliament in 1835, and was opened in stages from both ends from 1838 onwards. The detail of its construction was entirely the conception of Isamabard Kingdom Brunel and was to be, in his own words, 'the finest work in the kingdom'. It was opened throughout 1841 with the completion of the Box Tunnel, the greatest engineering feat of early railway construction. Built to Brunel's broad gauge of seven foot, its engineering works achieved a grandeur at that time unmatched elsewhere in the country and, as they were suited to high speed running, most of these structures have survived and are in daily use.
Shakespeare's Stratford
Criteria C (iii) and (vi)
The names of Stratford and Shakespeare are synonymous throughout the world. The writer who has exerted the greatest global influence was intimately connected with the town throughout his life. Stratford was where he was born, brought up, went to school, met his wife and baptised his children; it was also the place where he invested most of his theatrical earnings, maintained his family, retired and died. Many influences of Stratford and its outlying countryside have been traced in Shakespeare's writings, and a significant number of the surviving Shakespeare documents relate to his business and family affairs in Stratford.
The Wash and North Norfolk Coast
Criteria N (ii) and (iv)
The Wash and North Norfolk Coast is an area of international nature conservation importance comprising an area of some 70,000 hectares. It is designated a Ramsar site under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as a Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention). It is also a Special Protection Area under the Council Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (79/409/EEC), and is a candidate Special Area of Conservation under the Council Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and Wild Fauna and Flora (92/43/EEC). Parts of the North Norfolk coast are also a Biosphere Reserve designated under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).

Scotland

The Cairngorm Mountains
Criteria N (i) and (iii)
The Cairngorm Mountains comprise the largest continuous area of high ground above 1,000m in Britain and include most of the highest summits in Scotland. These mountains, with their distinctive plateau surfaces and glacially sculptured features, are surrounded by open moorland and glens. The climate reflects a unique combination of oceanic and continental influences, characterised by wet and windy conditions rather than extreme cold. The diversity of landforms present in the Cairngorms provides exceptional insights into long-term processes of mountain landscape evolution and environmental change in a maritime, mid-latitude setting in the northern hemisphere. This geomorphological development spans the latter part of the Tertiary period with its warm humid climate, through the ice ages of the last 2.5 million years, to the present day.
The Flow Country
Criteria N (ii) and (iv)
These peatlands are possibly the largest single area of blanket bog in the world. Together with associated areas of moorland and open water they are of international importance for conservation both as a habitat in their own right and because they support a diverse range of rare and unusual breeding birds.
The Forth Rail Bridge
Criteria C (i), (ii) and (iv)
The Forth Rail Bridge, which was opened in 1890, is an internationally recognised symbol of the achievements of late 19th century engineering. Its robust and original design took account of the lessons on the effect of wind on exposed bridges learned from the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879. It was the first major steel bridge in Europe. It is certainly the best known Rail Bridge in the world, and one of the most renowned civil engineering feats of all time.

Wales

Pont-Cysyllte Aqueduct
Criteria C (i), (ii) and (iv)
Pont-Cysyllte Aqueduct is one of the world's most renowned and spectacular achievements of waterways engineering. Built as apart of the improvement of transport to provide the arteries of industrialisation, the structure was a pioneer of cast iron construction and was the highest canal aqueduct ever built. As such, it is one of the heroic monuments which symbolise the world's first Industrial Revolution and its transformation of technology.

Northern Ireland

Mount Stewart gardens
Criteria C (ii) and (iv)
Mount Stewart is one of the most spectacular and idiosyncratic gardens of Western Europe and universally renowned for the 'extraordinary scope of its plant collections and the originality of its features which give it world-class status'. It was created within and old demesne on the shores of Strangford Lough, whose fine parkland trees and shelter belts were established for the 1782-83 house. A celebrated garden building, the Temple of the Winds, was added to the parkland in 1782-83 and the house was enlarged to the designs of Dance in 1804, and by Morrison in the late 1830s.

Overseas Territories

Fountain Cavern, Anguilla
Criteria C (i), (ii) and (iii)
The Fountain Cavern is one of 19 Indian sites identified by an archaeological survey in 1979. Of the 19 sites, following extensive scientific studies, the Fountain Cavern is considered to be the most important archaeological site on the island. The historical significance of the site to Anguilla and the region has led to the decision by the Government of Anguilla to develop a National Park with the Fountain Cavern as the focus. The other 18 sites will also form part of educational tours which centre around the National Park in order to provide a comprehensive overview of Amerindian culture in Anguilla and the region.
The Fortress of Gibraltar
Criteria C (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv)
The Rock of Gibraltar is one of the world's unique examples of a natural beacon and fortress which has been the focus, because of its geological and strategic position, of the attention of humans since the early days of prehistory. The Rock has long been the symbol of strength and stability and its singular geological makeup has permitted its use and defence by successive cultures. The Rock of Gibraltar, 6 kilometres long by 1 kilometre wide, has one of the highest densities of universal heritage in the world and for this reason it is the entire peninsular, the natural fortress, which is included in the proposed World Heritage site.

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