St Austell is the main town of Cornwall's china clay country, standing in the south of the county a few miles inland from the coast. In Kernewek it is Sen Austel, and the town is named after Austol, a sixth-century Cornish saint. It was a village until tin mining arrived in the eighteenth century, and the clay industry that followed turned it into a town: the white tips and the worked-out pits are still part of the landscape around it.
The clay country
The industry shaped everything here. The Eden Project stands in a former clay pit, the Lost Gardens of Heligan are close by, and the China Clay Country Park at Wheal Martyn, north of the town, tells the story of the men and women who worked in the shadow of the tips.
The town
The railway reached St Austell on 4 May 1859, on the line that still runs through the viaducts above the town. St Austell Brewery, founded here in the nineteenth century, sends Tribute and other beers out across Cornwall from its base in the town.
Sources
Last checked: 2026-10-11