Abstract
Industrial Heritage Making in Britain: The Conservation, Adaptation, and Reinterpretation of the Historic Textile Industry Complexes
The aim of this study is to explore the transformation of outdated industrial sites into UNESCO World Heritage Sites, focusing on their conservation history and how they were re-interpreted and presented to the public in terms of representing the working-class, women, and child labor as well as historic industrial values of the sites. As case studies, I selected three pioneering textile mills in the United Kingdom that were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. These are the Derwent Valley, Saltaire, and New Lanark Mills. The study has been carried out by analyzing previous sources, several international and national policy documents regarding the protection and management of the sites, and conducting site visits and interviews with the site coordinators. The industrial sites examined here clearly display how the historical, economic, and practical context impacts the approaches to the conservation and adaptive re-use strategies of industrial heritage. They also illustrate how reuse and reinterpretation processes have played a crucial role in the search for a new identity for each historic industrial site.
Keywords
Industrial Heritage, Conservation History, Re-Interpretation, Presentation, World Heritage Sites
