UNESCO: 80th Anniversary

Joe Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd—there is always a sense of history when you are in it.

I want to speak about the contribution of Hexham and the broader north-east to UNESCO. We have a proud industrial heritage in the north-east, and I am proud to have the birthplace of George Stephenson in my constituency. At a recent panel event in Wylam, I was asked whether George Stephenson was to blame for the climate catastrophe, which was a challenging question to be asked at a community event, and slightly deeper than I had planned on going.

We also have one of the most iconic UNESCO heritages sites, Hadrian’s wall, which symbolises the fantastic history of our nation and islands. Whether walking through Sycamore gap—which was a tragic loss—or more far-flung areas of Hadrian’s wall, we can get a sense of the scale of an incredible engineering achievement that left such a mark on the landscape.

With my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns), I recently attended a parish council meeting in Gilsland, a village we both represent. I bumped into my year 3 teacher and we discussed the urgent need for investment in transport infrastructure in rural Northumberland. That includes the long-term goal of getting rail services into the village to open a key element of Hadrian’s wall back up to the public, allowing them to experience the world heritage site.

I have a few points for the Minister to take away and share with colleagues, particularly the funding for national parks. Northumberland national park covers one of the largest geographic areas of any such park, but it is slightly disadvantaged by the current funding formula, which favours larger parks in the south and allows them to invest more, even though Northumberland national park does incredible work at facilities such as the Sill. However, Hadrian’s wall does not bring just a tourism offer; it gives a deep sense of pride and, crucially, jobs and employment opportunities. Those opportunities are also not just in Haltwhistle and not just in the tourism sector, so it underpins whole sections of the regional economy and our transport infrastructure.

One point needs to be borne in mind: we are not simply a region defined by Hadrian’s wall or opportunities of the past. We have a rich cultural offer. I would like to take this opportunity to put on record my support for the ongoing petition for the redevelopment of Hexham’s old fire station by Sir Antony Gormley. I also ask the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson), to pass on my distaste for how the Conservative cabinet of Northumberland county council has rammed through the rejection of that proposal. The Conservatives have a duty to enhance the lives of everyone in Northumberland, not merely those in their favoured areas. Unfortunately, the council cabinet in Northumberland is a specialist in failure when it comes to my constituency.

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend and I share not only Gilsland but Hadrian’s wall. Members may not be aware that it is only in the last eight years that Hadrian’s wall has yielded its long-kept secret that the largest structure is to be found at Carlisle cricket club, thanks to a fantastic dig that is going on there. Does my hon. Friend agree that, as we mark 80 years of UNESCO, we definitely need a further 80 years to understand what we can learn from our shared heritage?

[Joe Morris]

We need significantly more than 80 years to unearth all the secrets that Hadrian’s wall yet has. I have been deeply concerned to read about some of the damage that climate change is doing to potential unfound objects at Vindolanda, where certain changes in the soil acidity may be wreaking havoc on things that we do not yet understand. Although its largest structure might be in my hon. Friend’s constituency, I think that mine contains the largest contiguous body of Hadrian’s wall—just to do a little bit of neighbourly point scoring.

As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of UNESCO, I note that Hadrian’s wall is not just an incredibly large structure that binds together the west coast and east coast of England; it is a really powerful message about the importance of our shared history and culture. Borders really can define large elements of where we see ourselves—there are large parts of my constituency that are built with stones from Hadrian’s wall. As history evolves, we must look at how we can preserve and celebrate it for the future. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire for securing this debate, and for the manner in which he spoke about the achievements of UNESCO and the importance of marking and remembering our shared history.

[Peter Dowd (in the Chair)]

I remind Members that I did exhort them to stick to four minutes.