Beautiful Destruction

The Scars left on Cornish landscapes

During the mid 19th century 65,000 tonnes of China Clay were being extracted from St Austell in Cornwall. A once small villiage was rapidly developed into a hub of activity. By 1910 Cornwall was supplying fifty percent of the world’s china clay, over one million tonnes of clay every year. This had devestating effects on the land and surrounding wildlife. For every tonne of clay produced five tonnes of waste were produced as a biproduct. Today, much of the old china clay mines lay abandoned and nature is finding it’s way back into these alien landscapes. Creating otherworldly scenes that look like they should not be in Cornwall. However, nature always finds a way.