Poldarking the Past: Contested Heritage, Tourism and Identity in Post-mining Cornwall

Abstract

This thesis aimed to examine representations of Cornish identity and Poldark at heritage sites in Cornwall and how the local communities responded to these fictionalised representations. This thesis adopted an interpretivist qualitative approach. In total, 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted with local residents, heritage professionals and other associated tourism stakeholders. A further 21 online interviews were conducted with tourists. These interviews were triangulated with a range of documentary sources. Data collected from the interviews and documentary sources were analysed using a thematic analysis framework.

An original contribution of the thesis was the conceptualisation of ‘imaginative heritage dissonance’ which combines the notions of ‘imaginative heritage’ posited by Reijnders (2020) and aspects of heritage dissonance theorised by Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) to provide a lens for examining the intricacies of heritage dissonance pertaining to the uses of competing narratives of ‘real’ and ‘fictional’ at heritage sites. Findings of the study revealed that the popularity of the 2015 adaptation of Poldark increased tourist numbers and was widely utilised in the marketing of Cornwall’s tourism. A clear disconnect between the National Trust and local communities was uncovered when analysing how locals felt about heritage representations. This disconnect extended to feelings of resentment aimed at overtourism linked to Poldark.

The findings have presented managerial implications pertaining to the management of heritage dissonance and overtourism. In response, the thesis outlines valuable practical recommendations for tourism stakeholders. The first recommendation suggests a new collaborative approach when managing the practicalities of contents tourism to encompass cultural placemaking that allows for bottom-up participation from local communities and the fostering of collaboration between both creative industries and tourism stakeholders. The second recommendation centres on the management of overtourism and outlines a series of measures that could be applied to Cornwall (and further afield) when developing future management strategies.