T
he town of St Austell in mid- Cornwall has become known for the so-called ‘Cornish Alps’ – the conical pyramids formed by spoil heaps from the area’s 250 years of clay mining.
China clay – otherwise known as kaolin –
is used, as its name suggests, to make china and porcelain. Though still mined today, the industry was at its peak in the early 1900s, with many mines and quarries having since shut down.
One such piece of land is located just north of St Austell, near the villages of Penwithick and Carthew. In 2010 the area was earmarked to be developed into what was being termed at the time as an ‘eco- town’ – one of a government-sponsored programme of new towns.
The eco-town concept eventually evolved into the current garden village/garden town scheme, which has seen dozens of sites across England earmarked for development into new communities with the primary purpose of tackling the country’s housing shortage. These developments are hoped to be designed and built with a set of key principles in mind; blending good quality housing with signifi cant amounts of green and landscaped surroundings, aligning with an emphasis on sustainability and enhancing the environment.
The redevelopment of the 550 acre site
at St Austell is being overseen by Eco-Bos, a joint venture between global engineering and construction contractor Orascom and
ADF MARCH 2026
industrial mineral producer Imerys, which employs over 1,000 people at open pit mines across the UK. In 2006, Imerys announced they would be restructuring their china clay operations, resulting in a surplus of 700 hectares of land no longer required for mining. The following year, the Government was to introduce its eco-town initiative, thereby providing an ideal opportunity to repurpose the West Carclaze site. From the inception of the scheme, Eco- Bos brought LHC Design on board who were involved in “shaping the vision and leading the masterplanning and outline design,” explains LHC Design director, Graham Devine. Due to the project’s signifi cant scale, while LHC Design have undertaken several elements, primarily their involvement has been the delivery of the overall masterplan alongside landscape proposals.
Strategy & approach
The overall goal was to repurpose the brownfi eld land into a “healthy, low-carbon village where gardens and green corridors shape the experience of place,” says Devine. The scheme went through years of development following its initially being earmarked in 2007 as a potential ‘eco- town.’ Then in 2009, initial outline government approval was achieved, with a public exhibition of the proposals taking place in 2010.
“The challenge was to knit energy-positive homes, community uses and blue- green infrastructure into a complex, post-industrial landscape”
Graham Devine, LHC Design
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