China Clay landscape

I have been thinking about the china clay landscapes of St Austell and surrounding areas lately; there seems to be an interesting conflict surrounding them.

In the past, the Cornish china clay landscapes featuring strangely coloured pools within pits and huge, white clay tips have been used as filming locations of science fiction television shows and films.

Meledor pit, St Stephen, Cornwall. Photo from Wheal Martyn collection.

There have been many projects and developments concerning former clay mining land that aim to make them a place for wildlife and for them to have a more natural facade. To some, these strange ''alien landscapes'' have appeared ugly and cruel, an attack on more natural land. To others they have remained a strong symbol of Cornish industrial heritage.

In many ways, I belong to the latter; I am a believer in trying to keep the pollution of the landscape to a minimum and I confessedly love the ''older'' more ''natural'' landscapes of Cornwall including the coast, moorland and forests. So although I am happy that there is a dialogue concerning the welfare of the land for the people of today and for future generations to love and enjoy, I also have to admit that I love the look of ''The cornish alps'' - those otherworldly white mounds so clearly visible and ever present in St Austell and surrounding areas.

I grew up in St Austell, I am from St Austell and I never had much of a connection to it...it didn't seem like a place that had a lot of identity or character to me as a child and I continuously overheard people talk about it in a negative way. But the older I get and the longer I live here I become more and more proud of the rich and deep (excuse the mining puns!) history that St Austell boasts. One that wasn't made all that clear to me as a child.

Even as a child I loved the ''clay trails'' though. I loved the look of the pools and the remnants of the mining industry that lay there, although I had only the vaguest and most shallow awareness and knowledge of what it truly was.

I think that the need to erase industrial landscapes purely because of ''aesthetic'' and a preference for greener, more romantic landscapes is a shame and not something I am constantly conflicted about.

I love the land and want it to be as healthy as possible and of course the world does not have infinite resources, but to ignore and cast away the industrial history of St Austell and its surrounding villages feels like an insult to local heritage, as there's an element of shame in how we have attacked the landscape instead of a more balanced awareness of that but with a pride in the hard work and everyday lives of Cornish men and women.

Monitors washing out the clay. Photo from Wheal Martyn collection.

I am from St Austell and I love these strange landscapes; they give an identity to St Austell today and are an incredibly interesting and vital symbol of the largest (ands most overlooked) mining industry in Cornwall. Tin and copper mining has been given the romantic Poldark treatment, but the amount of exports from Cornwall that China Clay mining has produced pales the other two in comparison.

Bring back the science fiction :) but really bring back a sense of heritage and identity to this part of Mid-Cornwall that is often overlooked in favour of the North Cornish coast and West Penwith (two areas I also deeply love).