Par

Par enters the narrative as a place approached through the industrial landscape of central Cornwall. The coastal path skirts a clay-processing plant between its high wire perimeter fence and a railway line, then passes through a village to a beach hemmed in by the works and a sprawling caravan park. The ground and buildings are marked by the industry: fine white dust covers the land, and the path, trees, beach and even the dogs appear white. Par is not presented as an isolated seaside stop, but as a point on a route where industrial production and coastal life occupy the same narrow space.

The Route Through Par

The approach brings the walkers close to the infrastructure of clay processing. The fence and railway channel the path around the plant before it reaches the village and beach; the works’ warehouses and chimneys stand on one side, with the caravan park on the other. The contrast is physical as well as visual: the walkers move through an environment coated in pale dust, bounded by industrial structures and holiday accommodation.

After passing through the cluster of pubs and cafés at Polkerris, they climb into mature trees on the hillside. The shift from the white industrial landscape to the autumn colour of the trees makes the return to a varied natural setting a distinct moment in the journey. Par’s significance in the account lies partly in this transition: the route does not simply leave industry behind, but makes its mark on the landscape impossible to miss.

The Clay Country

The wider area north of St Austell is shaped by china clay, or kaolin. Local mining expanded from the mid-eighteenth century, after William Cookworthy developed a process for removing impurities from the clay. The industry grew around fine porcelain production and later supplied clay for uses ranging from teacups to toothpaste. As copper and tin mining declined, clay extraction continued to expand.

That production also leaves a substantial physical residue: for every tonne of clay produced, a further five tonnes of waste are created. The accumulated spoil forms the mounds known as the Cornish Alps. The account notes competing ways such former workings might be treated: left to naturalize, turned into a visitor attraction, or restored by putting spoil back into the excavations. These alternatives show how the legacy of extraction can be recast as landscape, heritage or tourism, without erasing the industry that made it.

Regional Industry and Heritage

The clay trade also shaped nearby coastal settlements. Charlestown, formerly West Polmear, developed as a harbour through Charles Rashleigh’s expansion of the settlement, changing it from a small fishing community into a place serving cargo ships carrying clay. Its later life as a picturesque harbour sustained by heritage tourism represents another afterlife of the industry: the transport of clay has receded, but the historical landscape remains an attraction.

The passage through Par gives this regional history an immediate, bodily scale. Rather than describing mining only as an economic story, it follows the path through dust, fences, rail lines, chimneys and a beach pressed between works and holiday accommodation. Par thus belongs to a landscape where industrial history is not merely preserved in heritage sites; it continues to shape what travellers see and how they move through the coast.