A series of slate plaques mined and crafted at Honister Slate Mine has taken pride of place in Keswick to celebrate the Lake District's status as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The curve of 12 plaques sits either side of the official Unesco World Heritage Site plaque in Crow Park and represent the merging of heritage craft, industry, and conservation.

Inscribed on the first six panels, to the left of the original, is a welcome to the 13 valleys of the Lake District, along with a quote from William Wordsworth's Guide Through the District of the Lakes from 1810, with a map.

The history of Crow Park is told on the first of the second section of plaques, describing the tale of a panorama of mountains and other stunning views of the Lake District being discovered in 1748, after a group of oak trees was removed from the Keswick park.

Artists and writers were eager to have their creativity influenced by the beauty, including poet Thomas Gray, who wrote about his experience of Crow Park in his 1769 travel journal - and passages from this journal fill the final five slate plaques.

Pip Hall, designer of the new plaques, worked with stonemasons at Honister Slate Mine to translate her ideas onto slate, and chose the italic font to contrast UNESCO's traditional Helvetica writing, expressing the excitement and celebration of being given a heritage status.

Honister's craftsman Graham Robson and trainee Ricki Pattinson sandblasted the designs onto the polished slates, using a mix of traditional and modern techniques, which they also use to create a variety of stonework, including headstones, signs, and kitchen worktops. The slate mine prides itself on using every piece of stone that is extracted, and ensuring no piece is wasted.

Graham said: "I’m proud to be working with Rikki on the World Heritage Site plaques, and helping to keep these heritage skills alive. It’s important to pass on this knowledge to the next generation. It’s not the kind of job anyone can do, you have to be a bit of a special breed to work with stone all day.”

Alex McCoskrie, World Heritage engagement officer for the Lake District National Park Partnership, said: “The design, building and craftsmanship of this wall, topped with local slate, celebrates the Lake District’s World Heritage Site status, and is a reflection of the stories behind the accolade.

"Centuries of skills and using the mineral wealths of the Lakes are on show, and will stand testament to our cultural landscape for years to come.”