Wheal Martyn Archives - Explore Cornwall

A Walk Around the China Clay Trails

Caitlin — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 09:30:26 +0000

The China Clay industry in Cornwall has a long and illustrious history, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of the unique material being excavated and taken down to Par harbour. A walk around the China Clay trails gives a wonderful view of this grand industry.

In 2005 the Clay Trails were opened to the public and encompass miles of lands reclaimed from the China Clay industry. This unique landscape is dotted with chimneys, historical buildings, massive clay tips and tranquil turquoise water filled quarries. Great effort has been put into repopulating the landscape with trees, bushes and flowers with the hope of making this an inviting place for both people and animals.

There are nine ‘official’ routes stretching from north St Austell to Par, but these are only guides and there are more stretches of public footpaths than you can shake a stick at.

My walk started off at Wheal Martyn, a centre for China Clay history and a really amazing museum. From here I took the footpath off the carpark south towards St Austell. This passes one of the areas former railway sidings where China Clay would have been loaded onto trains and taken on to Par harbour.

The route follows the white river, named this after because of its white staining from China Clay, across the William Cookworthy bridge and up the hill. This passes another former China Clay quarry, Ruddle Pit which worked for nearly a hundred years before being flooded.

Past the pit, continue on up the hill and at the top take a left to visit the Sky Spur, which offers wonderful 360 views of the Clays area.

Heading back to the Sky Spur turning point, head straight on this time following the path towards the Eden Project.

The route goes on a little longer before crossing the A391 so that on your right is the St Austell Enterprise Park and on the left is the flooded pit of Great Carclaze China Clay Works (Baal Pit). This is private land, but there’s plenty to see from the path all around the site and on the other end there’s a small hill overlooking the old and new ventures in the area, complete with a small stone circle. There are a large number of stone circles in Cornwall, but this one is a new addition.

This is the end of my walk, though this particular trail carries on all the way to the Eden Project.

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Wheal Martyn

Caitlin — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 12:42:00 +0000

On the outskirts of St Austell is the Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum. Once a china clay works of its own, this unique piece of Cornish heritage is a real gem.

Work started here in the early 1800’s, but it’s more famous owner Richard Martyn bought the land in 1790. During this period it was fairly successful, pulling 400 tons of china clay out each year, with another four clayworks being added to the group in the 1840’s, bringing production up to 3,500 tons a year.

Messrs Lovering and Co bought the pit in 1880 to add to their collection of other pits. In 1932 it was again worked alongside two other key clay producers under the name English China Clay International where it continued to operate until 1966. The Wheal Martyn Heritage Trust was established in 1975 in order to help preserve the China Clay history in Cornwall. In 2010 the site was taken over by South West Lakes to ensure its future.

Our tour of the China Clay works started by being told to look out for the tiny bears dotted around the site (very important information!). We then headed through the museum section, stopping to read all of the history of the area. Once leaving here, we followed the path up to the first waterwheel, a 35″ made at the Charlestown Foundry in the 1880’s to pump slurry It was restored in 1976 and was on the move when we stopped by.

Heading up the hill, the next section contains the small railyard, with the remains of a locomotive, two cranes and the wagon sheds. After examining the area we heading inside the bottom of the sheds to learn more about the uses of China Clay. This then led up to the pan kiln and linhay which was under renovation.

The path up the hill continued onto another waterwheel, this one an 18″, erected in 1902 to pump slurry around the site. Following the path around to the right takes you past Wheal Martyn’s drags, Blueing House and settling pit. The ponds are the unique blue colour keenly associated with the china clay industry.

Back around at the second wheel, we following the path up to the viewing point. This includes the Greensplat and Wheal Martyn China Clay pits currently being worked by Imery’s Minerals Ltd. Once we’d watched the different vehicles drive up and down a bit we followed the path back until it joined the woodland walk that heads out to the right;this passes by the unique pumping engine house of Gomm China Clay Works. This path winds through the woods and also takes you past the remains of a whim engine.

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Gomm China Clay Works

Caitlin — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 17:22:05 +0000

Hidden in the woodland surrounding the Wheal Martyn site sits the engine house belonging to the former Gomm China Clay Works.

Little information remains about this site, being one of the least successful of the Martyn Brothers ventures. They got their lease from the Mount Edgecombe Estate in 1878. The Gomm China Clay pit opened in the same year.

Work stopped work in the 1920’s with the pit closure, which was flooded in 1934. The area is now incorporated in the Wheal Martyn Museum site and partly by Imery’s China Clay Works.

There are several features from the original mine still hanging around, although many have been incorporated into the Wheal Martyn cafe and shop. The front entrance of the museum was once the mines workshops, kin pan, linhay, settling tanks, furnace room and its chimney still stands. The only engine house was built in 1878 for a 22 or 24″ rotative engine which would have pumped slurry. Its former boiler house and chimney haven’t survived. Closer to the museum is the scant remains of a whim engine; this would have been a wooden building with a galvanised roof, with only the machinery scattered around the site remaining today.

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