Pentewan Railway

It was built as a horse-drawn tramway carrying china clay from St Austell to a new harbour at Pentewan, and was opened in 1829.

China clay (referred to as kaolinite outside the United Kingdom) had been discovered in the area north and west of St Austell, in Cornwall, and Charles Rashleigh was prominent in developing the industry; he built a harbour at Charlestown from which the material could be shipped to market.

The northern part was on a steep gradient falling towards the harbour, so that loaded wagons could be gravitated; the remainder, and the uphill empty haul, was operated with horses.

In August 1881 the children of St Austell Workhouse, were taken to Pentewan on the trucks for their annual treat, which was paid for by Mr Arthur Coode.

The Cornwall Railway opened between Plymouth and Truro in 1859 using steam locomotives, and soon became the dominant land transport medium in the district.

[2] In 1874 an Act of Parliament was obtained authorising the use of locomotive traction on the Pentewan line, and also extensions northwards into the china clay fields.

The £50,000 capital of the expanding Pentewan company had only been authorised by Parliament, and few subscribers came forward with the money: by 1880 only £11,824 had been forthcoming by 1880, and profits from current operations were inadequate to pay the ground rent.

[1][2] Symons summarised the story of the line, writing in 1884; implementation of locomotive traction seems to have met with objection: The St. Austell and Pentewan Railway, made about 50 years ago, was for the conveyance of goods only.

The locomotives only worked up as fas as Iron Bridge; horses were used for the final section in St Austell on grounds of public safety.

The horses were brought up from Pentewan on the first train of the day; locomotive operation into St Austell was permitted in later years.

[2] A strike in 1913 reduced earnings and the outbreak of war in 1914 took many men away from the china clay industry; the reduced output was increasingly diverted away from Pentewan which suffered from limitations of primitive handling methods and difficult navigational access, and the last china clay was carried on 29 January 1918; the last actual train ran on 2 March 1918.