Wheal Martyn, China clay mining museum in St Austell, United Kingdom.
Wheal Martyn is a museum site spread across about 26 acres that grew from two former Victorian clay works. The grounds contain original processing equipment, water wheels, and settlement tanks that show how the material was extracted and refined.
The clay pits operated during Cornwall's industrial expansion in the 1800s and were central to the region's economic growth. The museum opened in 1975 to preserve this industrial heritage and share it with the public.
The site tells the story of how clay mining shaped the lives and routines of workers across the region. You can see tools, photographs, and documents that give insight into what people did during their working days.
The site is easy to explore on foot, with pathways through the outdoor areas and indoor exhibition buildings. You can move between the different areas at your own pace and spend as much time as you need in each section.
This site holds the only surviving processing machinery and water wheels in the country that remain in their original positions from the mining era. These preserved machines show the techniques that were used over a hundred years ago to extract clay from the ground.
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