Bastard Rock, Bastard Landscapes
On Heritage Boundaries, Relationality and the Exclusion of Industry in Northwest Wales
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.25826Keywords:
industry, heritage, boundaries, UNESCO, slate, landscapeAbstract
Inspired by a type of quarrying waste nicknamed “bastard rock”, this paper uses the concept “bastard” as an analogy for industrial heritage landscapes: conceptually and physically difficult, inherently hybrid and comprised of contested lineages and inheritances. Advocating for relational landscape approaches in heritage management, this paper also addresses the exclusion of active industry from UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscapes and buffer zones, using the case study of Penrhyn Quarry in The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales as an example of when “one-size-fits-all” heritage management strategies risk diminishing the cultural heritage they seek to preserve for future generations.
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