THE OLD WAY
The original, ancient road into the town had made its way through the bottom of the valley and on to Trenance, passing directly past Menacuddle Well. The ancient ‘clapper’ bridge witnesses to its many centuries of usage but by the early 19thcentury the growing prosperity of the china clay industry was imposing an impossible burden on St Austell’s roads. What was most needed was a better road-link to the north where most of the china clay workings were located.
With the creation of the Bodmin and Roche Turnpike Trust in 1836, work began on a new northern link. This new road needed to be terraced into the granite of the hillside. This entailed the construction of several imposing retaining walls. (A sign of up-to-date thinking was the provision of a pedestrian pavement stretching from the town to Trethowel.)
MENACUDDLE WELL TO PRESENT
Ownership of the baptistry and grounds has changed several times since Sir Charles Graves-Sawle made his original gift to the Parochial Church Council of Holy Trinity Church in 1921. It then passed on to St Austell Rural District, Restormel Borough and now to Cornwall Council.
Due to years of neglect, the gardens had become lost below huge invasive plants; the pond had almost disappeared. Only the small area of grass and the Baptistery could be seen and in the Springtime from the road you could just spot the brilliant red blossoms of the specimen ‘Cornish Red’ rhododendrons above the ‘jungle’. Clearly there had been some wonderful plantings in the past.
Older residents tell of the Edwardian custom of a Sunday afternoon ‘constitutional’ from the Trenance, under the viaduct and beside the river to the destination of Menacuddle. (This lower part of the valley is owned by St Austell Brewery and is not currently open to the public but hopes are that ultimately the full walk from town will be restored.)