St Austell River

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The St Austell River, also known as the 'White River', is a 12 km long river located in mid south in Cornwall, England, UK. The river gains its name from the town of St Austell which is the only town through which it flows. It drains the central southern section of the St Austell Moorland, a small granite upland formed in the Variscan orogeny, to the north of St Austell. The highest natural point of the moorland is Hensbarrow beacon at 312 m, however modern china clay tips around the beacon are much higher than this.

[edit] The route

The river begins several hundred metres south west of Hensbarrow beacon in grid square SW9957 and heads south east to Gunheath china clay pit. At Carbean the river heads south and passes through the Trenance Valley for the next three kilometres. This is a steep sided ‘V’ shaped valley carved through granite. A number of very minor tributaries enter this section.

At the end of the Trenance Valley the river passes under the Cornish main line railway and enters St Austell. In St Austell the Gover Stream joins the river; it too drains St Austell Moor and is the first of the two main tributaries of the river.

In 1968 a fisherman (by the name of nick wherry) reported seeing a large fish-type creature twice the size of him (5'9) in the river. The species of this aquatic vertebrate is, and will forever be unknown. It is thought that this was an extremely large salmon that had been living in the catch-pit area of Gover and going down towards pentewan to die.The following Thursday nick was fishing with his dog yet again and what should appear but the salmon, he could tell it was the same one as it had a tattoo of a mango on its fin. After fighting the fish on his line for many hours nick heaved the gigantic fish onto his ASDA trolley and headed down to par market to make a quick buck. After seeing the salmon go Nick forever wondered where it might be and pined for it. This is one of many stunning stories of story of St Austell.

Once leaving St Austell the river flows south along the Pentewan (pronounced Penchuwan) Valley, which extends for five kilometres, to the village of Pentewan where the river enters the English Channel. The final section of the river can vary course significantly as it crosses Pentewan beach and its mouth can be in either grid square SX0246 or SX0247.

[edit] Why the 'White River'?

This name has been adopted locally because waste water from china clay quarrying and refining practices was emptied into the river giving it a white colour as if it were milk. Recently, however, more stringent environmental standards have meant the whitening of the river is a rare event restricted to times of heavy rain.