Concept, location and size

The new park will stretch from the centre of Pool, through Robinson’s Shaft to South Crofty, right out into the new residential and business areas, dramatically transforming 7.5 hectares of derelict land.

Using innovative landscape design, the Park will celebrate the culture of Cornwall and provide dynamic new spaces to use for exercise, relaxation, learning, appreciation, public art and performance.

The park aims to be the UK’s first purpose designed Zero Energy Park, with energy generated on site equalling or exceeding that expended to run and maintain it.

   Aerial Overview of the Heartlands Project

What is included in the park:

1. The Bickford Shaft Complex and Chimney

The remains of the Bickford’s Shaft Complex will be retained as a romantic set of post industrial ruins, incorporating areas of ecological planting and the former water tank to the mine complex refilled to form an ecology pond with marginal planting and a timber deck for pond dipping.

The existing chimney base will be adapted and a new chimney could be constructed using weathering steel. Visible from long distance, this vertical element will fade into the skyline with laser cut steel shapes mimicking plumes of steam and smoke as they rise above the horizon.

At night or for special events a shaft of light will be projected up through the centre of the chimney to create a beacon visible for miles around.

2. Cornish Diaspora Gardens

In the 19th century, thousand’s of Cornish people emigrated across the world taking with them their culture, mining skills and technologies. Through planting and interpretation, the Cornish Diaspora gardens will tell the story of the Cornish people and their influence on the lands to which they travelled.

The gardens will feature plants which were successfully introduced from Cornwall to foreign lands and those which returning countrymen brought back to Cornwall and successfully established in their own gardens, collections and nurseries.

Gardens bounded by channels of water will be themed on continents and nations important to the story of the Cornish migration including Chile, South Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Visitors will cros continents guided by bridges and become immersed in the storyas they wander through the varied and lush planting.

The Cornish Diaspora Gardens will complement the displays in the Robinson’s Shaft Complex. The gardens will feature an outdoor classroom with space for large groups to gather and interactive displays on permanently sited video screens. With audio and visual recordings these screens will allow visitors to experience the oral history of Cornwall through miners and members of the community.

    NZ Gardens

3. The Red River Water Feature

Spilling from the primary southern entry point in to the park, the water feature will eddy, race and flow to the north east where it will cascade into the ornamental pool which forms the framework for the Cornish Diaspora Gardens.

The water will be given the illusion of a red colour by the use of a red granite bed and reflections from the careful use of weathering steel, which gains its protection from the elements by developing a rust coloured oxidation layer. As the water flows into the Diaspora gardens area, the red colour will dissipate, emulating the meeting of the river with the sea.

It is intended that pumps re-circulating the water in the feature would be powered by energy from the wind micro-turbines and that rainwater will used to supply water to the feature as part of an overall sustainable water use strategy.

4. Children’s Play Area

Of major importance to the site and a key visitor attraction will be the ‘Play Experience’. This feature will allow children to work together, channelling their energies to achieve real results. Activities will include pumping and channelling water to operate water powered moving ‘machines’, digging, building and moving piles of gravel and sand using tramways and grading aggregates into piles.

5. Teenage Area

Contained within the retained ancient Cornish hedges which remain on the site the Teenage Area is accessed from the Children’s Play Area via a timber boardwalk and is intended to be a dedicated teenage area with seating, a climbing wall and facilities for beach volley ball.

6. The Cornish Sensory and Arts Garden

Also contained within the remnants of the medieval Cornish hedge field boundaries these gardens are intended to be an ‘outdoor gallery’ where the best of Cornish arts are displayed.

Indigenous tree planting provides dappled shad and the area is accessed by a timber board walk which meanders through the walled enclosures. The use of the existing ancient Cornish hedges and local detailing of stiles, gate posts etc. will instil a strong sense of Cornishness.

Just to the north is a grass mound which forms the exact opposite of the Plen0An-Gwarry in the Market Square within the Robinson’s Complex – a mound and not a sunken performance space. The mound incorporates a long serpentine contour slide for children of all ages.

7. The Event’s Arena and Great Lawn

The Event’s Arena is an outdoor performance space catering for intimate and large-scale events including plays, music and dance, it is intended for use by groups like Kneehigh Theatre etc. The Robinson’s Shaft buildings form a dramatic floodlit backdrop at dusk, and the space can be easily serviced from the Robinson’s Shaft Complex.

8. Ecological Area

Important to the distinctive character of derelict mining sites in Cornwall are the niche species of plants and animals that colonise pit heads creating an important ecological resource. To the east of the Heartlands site, the area around the Bickford’s Shaft will be managed as an ecological area with interpretation and a nature trail. Distinctive Cornish walls made from local materials will feature throughout the park to delineate spaces and reinforce the strong local identity.

9. Landscape surrounding the Robinson’s Shaft Complex

The landscape around the shaft complex is to remain as an open space to retain its character as a place of work. The complex will be dotted with industrial artefacts and existing tramways will be retained and restored, giving an illuminated pedestrian route east towards Pool village. At the southern side of the Market Square is a fountain plaza incorporating a set of walk through/run through fountains.