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- Oct 23, 2010
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Most of my posts have been very rural, such as Bodmin Moor for no other reason than I like walking around there. It occured to me that sometimes the quite and isolation can be a transitory thing. Then I found out some of the china clay works near Par are being demolished so decided to go and have a look before then. These works have been covered previously but I wanted to show how the lanscape had changed under the duress of china clay extraction.
I am not preaching against extraction, I just wanted to give a flavour of the dereliction that goes hand in hand with it. China clay deposits in Cornwall are the largest in the world and have been worked since 1746. 120 million tons of china have been extracted, but reserves in the ground will last at least another hundred years.
Of course this means that the area the open cast extraction covers grows. Compare the maps of this small area north of St.Austell.
As you travel around the area you will come across many examples of roads etc ending at the edge of a pit or where they have been buried by waste. The next picture relates to the maps the earlier maps showing fields etc but the in the last one the extraction pit has widened.
Here an old telephone box still sits beside part of an old road.
Then there are the dislocated farms and communities. This was once a farmhouse. It has no land now and serves as a cowshed.
Some buildings when overtaken by the diggings were used by the quarry companies.
The now traditional picture!
One of the many chimneys in the area.
This old shed is now used to store road salt. There wasn't much in there - maybe we won't need it this year....
These sheds are in the process of demolishion.
A square chimney for a change...
This reads like a challenge - but not today!
Thanks for looking
I am not preaching against extraction, I just wanted to give a flavour of the dereliction that goes hand in hand with it. China clay deposits in Cornwall are the largest in the world and have been worked since 1746. 120 million tons of china have been extracted, but reserves in the ground will last at least another hundred years.
Of course this means that the area the open cast extraction covers grows. Compare the maps of this small area north of St.Austell.
As you travel around the area you will come across many examples of roads etc ending at the edge of a pit or where they have been buried by waste. The next picture relates to the maps the earlier maps showing fields etc but the in the last one the extraction pit has widened.
Here an old telephone box still sits beside part of an old road.
Then there are the dislocated farms and communities. This was once a farmhouse. It has no land now and serves as a cowshed.
Some buildings when overtaken by the diggings were used by the quarry companies.
The now traditional picture!
One of the many chimneys in the area.
This old shed is now used to store road salt. There wasn't much in there - maybe we won't need it this year....
These sheds are in the process of demolishion.
A square chimney for a change...
This reads like a challenge - but not today!
Thanks for looking
