St. Austell

Among the towns of England, St Austell stands apart for the china-clay industry that has shaped its identity for generations. Set a short distance inland from St Austell Bay on the English Channel, the town belongs to Cornwall’s south coast, where former clay pits and spoil tips have left an unmistakable mark on the terrain. Kaolin extracted here supplied industries from ceramics to paper, and the Wheal Martyn Clay Works museum records the labour and machinery behind that trade. Nearby, the Eden Project occupies a reclaimed clay pit at Bodelva, connecting this industrial legacy with contemporary environmental education. Explore additional webcams nearby to see how St Austell relates to the Cornish coast and its former clay country.

Generated by AI