Landscapes, buildings and industrial heritage from across the UK have been put on a list of potential candidates for World Heritage status.

The 11 sites range from the Lake District to the slate industry of North Wales, as well as the Forth rail bridge and the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire.

The “tentative list” for potential nomination for World Heritage status also includes the UK Overseas Territories of St Helena in the South Atlantic and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies.

Two sites that are already being considered by Unesco for world heritage status – the Twin Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, in Sunderland and South Tyneside, and Darwin’s landscape laboratory in Kent – are also on the list.

Announcing the list, Tourism and Heritage Minister John Penrose said: “Few places in the world can match the wealth of wonderful heritage we have available in the UK.

“The 11 places that make up the new UK tentative list are fantastic examples of both our cultural and natural heritage and I believe they have every chance of joining famous names like the Sydney Opera House and the Canadian Rockies to become world heritage sites.”

The 11 sites have been whittled down from 38.

Nominations from the list will be submitted from 2012 based on the strength of their case and the likelihood they will be given World Heritage status.

The Twin Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, Sunderland and South Tyneside and Darmwin’s landscape laboratory in Kent that are already considered by Unesco will also join the list.

The candidates

• The Forth Bridge (Rail), Scotland
• Chatham Dockyard and its Defences, Kent, England
• Creswell Crags, Derbyshire/ Nottinghamshire, England.
• England’s Lake District, Cumbria.
• Gorham’s Cave Complex, Gibraltar.
• The Island of St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean.
• Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, England.
• Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof, Shetland, Scotland.
• Slate Industry of North Wales.
• The Flow Country, Scotland.