9. Understanding: Research

This guidance note is for those researching Cornwall’s historic environment, and heritage.

Each Guidance Note illustrates how important our understanding of Cornish distinctiveness is. It informs all activities involving Cornwall’s historic environment. This includes protection, management, planning, design and presentation. Research as part of Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs), delve into the detail of places. These inform planned changes. Far-reaching research improves general understanding of themes and places in Cornwall.

Research on Cornwall’s historic environment will increase understanding. Different applications of distinctiveness ensure research will itself have broad application. The needs of those applying distinctiveness will help guide future directions. They will shape priorities and ways of undertaking historic environment research in Cornwall.

We should continually deepen our understanding of the two approaches to Cornish distinctiveness. The approaches are identified in the study commissioned by Bord Ertach Kernow.

1. Establish which heritage assets, places, or practice are particular to Cornwall. Which are rarely or never found elsewhere or have their origins in Cornwall.
2. We need to enhance our understanding of each of the five themes. Themes which are regarded as representing the typical in Cornwall.
3. Language: Cornish and the Cornish ways with English.
4. Activities that contribute to Cornwall’s unusually diversified economy.
5. People’s responses to Cornwall’s natural topography and climate. The locations of settlements or the forms of buildings as an example.
6. Responses to and adaptations of Cornwall’s natural environment.
7. Activities, places and structures that capture aspects of the Cornish people’s spirit.

Research will include how heritage values inform the prioritisation that all activities need.

Extract from Thomas Martyn’s map of Cornwall 1748, and a survey at Tintagel

Ideal outcomes

• Communities take part in investigating and understanding the distinctiveness of places and features. They help develop the ways we experience, value and care for them.
• Research projects always include consideration of Cornish and local distinctiveness. These should include projects linked to the planning process such as HIA's.
• Studies make links between historical understanding, distinctiveness, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
• Research improves understanding of distinctive asset and landscape types. Particularly those susceptible to change that are currently under-represented.
• Cornwall and Isles of Scilly HER includes distinctive Sites and Types.
• The Cornwall HLC is deepened, by including distinctiveness in its descriptive texts.

Things to consider

• Framework Convention for National Minorities (FCNM) Article 12. Parties should ‘foster knowledge of the culture, history, language and religion of their national minorities and of the majority.' This emphasises the need to link research to education.
• The relationships between intangible heritage and the historic environment need exploration. Cornwall’s tangible assets, settlements and landscape are better understood. Addressing this imbalance will help Cornwall meet the needs of the FCNM Article 12.
• Cornish distinctiveness is as diverse as Cornwall’s past and present populations.
• We need better engagement between researchers. Especially those investigating historic and natural environments, landscapes and culture. This will promote integrated understanding of changes on Cornish distinctiveness.
• Databases such as the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly HER are continually revised. Elements considered include character, distinctiveness and landscape sensitivity. Key to these revisions is an understanding of different change scenarios. They also consider the historic environment’s ability to deliver ecosystem services.

Approaches and resources

• Encourage partnership working across the historic environment community, including academia and individual researchers. This will help develop a research framework for Cornwall’s historic environment.
• Create a means of engaging the widest community. Include all voices in developing our understanding of Cornwall’s heritage and distinctiveness.
• Integrate the Heritage Strategy with the Local Plan and Economy and Culture strategies. This will broaden the reach and increase the effectiveness of each.
• Encourage thematic presentation of data that aligns them with Cornish and local distinctiveness.

This note will be of interest to users of all the other guidance notes as improved understanding of distinctiveness will underpin all good decisions and actions.