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History, Heritage, and Urban Regeneration: The Global and Local Worlds of Welsh Copper

Start date: 01 September 2010

End date: 30 November 2011

Between 1760 and 1890 a very large proportion of the world's smelted copper was produced in the Lower Swansea and Neath valleys. The gradual globalising of the Welsh copper industry had a profound impact on local development and today the region possesses extensive industrial archaeological sites of world significance.

Interpreting and representing interconnected local and global processes of economic change lies at the heart of this project which is based upon a collaborative partnership between Swansea University, the University of Glamorgan, the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, and the City and County of Swansea. Drawing on cutting edge research and utilising new technologies to bring the industrial past to life, the project reaches out to a wide public audience, learners of all ages. It will do so through:

a major museum exhibition;

a follow-on travelling exhibition to tour Wales;

a 'virtual' exhibition with 3-D animations to be hosted on partners' websites;

a public policy forum on heritage and urban regeneration;

a one-day academic conference; the publication of a major study on the development of Welsh copper industry;

the generation of a large volume of new heritage and educational materials.