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. The local term White River has given its name to the St Austell Town Centre Redevelopment Scheme, which is now called White River Place.

[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. More sensible people, would conclude that the chances of seeing an 11'6" salmon in the White River is absolute cobblers. Amongst other things, it could have been a submerged piece of tarpauline or an even more likely scenario is that Nick Wherry was telling fibs.^{[citation needed]}

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. More recently, riversiders have taken to drinking the milky elixir which runs from the hills above St Austell. The mineral content of the water is very high, in particular in aluminium sulphate, which the merry folk of Camelford will attest to is a marvellous cure for Baldness. Entrepreneurial riversiders in London Aprentice have lodged a planning application for a bottling plant and spa baths just opposite Queenies.