THE St Austell area, heavily influenced by the china clay industry, features today as the Voice continues its serialisation of the travel book, Cornwall Favourites For One And All!: A Quick Guide To Good Places To Visit Across The County.

Voice journalist Andrew Townsend, the author of the book, says: “One line in my family history goes back to miners and farmers from the St Austell area in the 19th century. Back then, they could never have imagined that giant biomes would one day be built and then draw thousands of tourists from around the world to the Clay Country.”

St Austell, the biggest town in Cornwall, is the capital of the Clay Country in the county. Giant hills of china clay waste, known by some as the Cornish Alps, can be seen around the district. Near these hills are huge, deep pits from where the valuable mineral is extracted.

St Austell is the biggest town in Cornwall. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)
St Austell is the biggest town in Cornwall. (Picture: Andrew Townsend) (Picture: Andrew Townsend)

In one of the disused pits, the Eden Project was created. Its massive biomes, containing plants from around the world, opened in 2001 and rapidly became the most popular tourist attraction in Cornwall.

Since then, the Eden Project has developed further, with one of the later features being a zipwire ride, promoted as England’s longest and fastest zipwire.

An artwork in the grounds of the Eden Project. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)
An artwork in the grounds of the Eden Project. (Picture: Andrew Townsend) (Picture: Andrew Townsend)

Away from the clay areas, there is glorious rolling countryside to be enjoyed near St Austell, which is on the mainline railway.

Next time we will be visiting two ancient sites on the spine of the county, Roche Rock, with its ruins of a medieval chapel, and Castle-an-Dinas, one of the largest Iron Age hillforts in Cornwall.

Cornwall Favourites For One And All! is available as an ebook on Amazon
Cornwall Favourites For One And All! is available as a book and an ebook on Amazon. (Picture: Andrew Townsend)

Our lovely tour around the county, taking in well-known spots but also lesser-known locations, offers something for everyone, from brilliant beaches, rugged moorland, storm-beaten cliffs and scenic rivers to welcoming towns, pretty villages, mining heritage sites and visitor attractions.

*Andrew Townsend is a journalist and writer. More details of Cornwall Favourites For One And All!: A Quick Guide To Good Places To Visit Across The County, which is also available as an ebook, can be found via this link to Andrew’s author page on Amazon - https://bit.ly/AndrewTownsendAuthor