The ancient Hurlers stones stand sentinel on Caradon Hill

Caradon Hill has a wealth of 19th Century mines and prehistoric remains and the local council is hoping to win �3m for conservation.

Planners say changes will reflect and contribute to the heritage of the area.

But landowners fear it will turn the area into a theme park and have set up an organisation to fight the proposals.

'High quality'

Elizabeth Medland, whose family owns and farms 450 acres (182 hectares), said: "It will spoilt what people enjoy about the place.

"It is so peaceful and this is what we have to treasure."

A planning group set up by Caradon District Council and Cornwall County Council submitted an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) last week.

It is aiming to win �2m from the HLF and �1m from other sources.

It expects a response in the next six months and in the meantime will be consulting local people on what the money will be spent on.

It has also promised a further 12 months of consultation should the bid be successful.

Caradon Hill was once part of a huge tin and copper mining industry

Becky Hughes, project development officer, said: "The mining heritage of the area is unique, but the problem is there is no-one with the capacity to look after them.

"It is beyond the scope of the landowners and it can't be funded by the council.

"We are hoping to put in place high quality works to conserve these buildings so they don't disintegrate any more and are safer for people to access."

Ms Hughes said: "There are concerns. But we don't want to put up new signs and displays because it is very much a working landscape.

"We will be using existing facilities at Minions and Liskeard for interpretation to reduce impact on landscape.

"If we handle it wrongly it will change the nature of the area, so we want to take this extra 12 months to talk to landowners and local communities."

For a time in the 18th and 19th Centuries, the mines of Cornwall and west Devon were the world's largest source of tin and copper.

South Caradon mine itself employed at least 1,000 people at its height.