Wheal Martyn

Wheal Martyn is a museum and preserved china clay works near St Austell featuring historic machinery, working waterwheels, and indoor exhibits documenting the extraction and processing of kaolin. Visitors can also view a working clay pit from an observation point, connecting the historical displays to the still-active industry.

China clay, or kaolin, is a white clay mineral used in paper, ceramics, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and many other products. The discovery and extraction of china clay in the St Austell area of Cornwall from the eighteenth century onward reshaped the region's economy and landscape, creating the distinctive white spoil tips visible across the area.

Wheal Martyn itself is a museum housed in a former Victorian-era clay works, but china clay extraction continues at active pits in the surrounding St Austell area. The museum's viewing platform overlooks a working pit operated by a major clay producer, linking past and present.

Yes, the museum site features historic water-powered machinery, including large waterwheels that were once used to pump slurry and drive the clay-processing equipment. These preserved and restored mechanisms demonstrate how water power was central to the industrial china clay operations of the era.