28th Sep 2020
Ask someone to describe Cornwall and you are likely to hear about its sandy beaches, rugged cliffs and never-ending ocean. While the county’s 422 miles of coastline has inspired generations of writers, there is another remarkable landscape that deserves its place in Cornwall’s literary heritage. The Cornish Alps of St. Austell, forged by the china clay industry. Poet Jack Clemo mined these strange lands for creative inspiration and redemption.
THE CLAY PULPIT
China clay mining recently featured in an episode of Rick Stein’s Cornwall. Rick Stein drew attention to Jack Clemo’s twentieth-century poems that connect the clay pits to his religious beliefs. With titles like “Prisoner of God” and “The Clay Altar”, it is easy to see Clemo as a kind of poet-preacher.
Another picture of Clemo emerges when you look deeper into how he wrote about the clay pits. It is true that Clemo’s poems can feel uncomfortable, harsh or even brutal. Yet there is a difficulty in them that reflects the realities of working in china clay pits. For Clemo, this mirrored his own religious crises. The pits embody themes of hard work, danger and resilience that are abundant in his poetry.
OUT OF DESTRUCTION
By the time he was a teenager, Clemo had lost much of his sight and hearing. He spent hours walking through the grounds surrounding the clay works. He imagined the clay pits as places of God which offered the opportunity for redemption. Having lived by them all his life, Clemo thought the clay pits represented potential. Creative and personal development was possible for him there.
In an environmentally conscious age, it is painful to see the clay industry's destruction of land. Yet Clemo is not interested in being a nature poet. The landscape that captures his imagination is not a natural one. Instead, it is the epicentre of Cornish engineering and economy. The pits are messy, dirty and harsh spaces that are nevertheless fertile in their own way. Clemo’s mining landscape offers creation out of destruction. At a time when the country was trying to rebuild from the Great Wars, the places that produced Cornwall’s white gold became symbols of hope.
Further Reading
“All You Need to Know About Cornwall”, Stay in Cornwall, 9 Jan 2018, https://www.stayincornwall.co.uk/handbook/about-cornwall
"The China Clay Industry." Cornwall Guide, 2021, https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/industrial/china_clay.htm
Clemo, Jack. Selected Poems. Enitharmon Press, 2015
Dunham, Simon. "The Fascinating Story of Jack Clemo's Braille Pocket Watch." Wheal Martyn Clay Works, 2021, https://www.wheal-martyn.com/Blog/the-fascinating-story-of-jack-clemos-braille-pocket-watch
Spinks, Michael. “Clemo, Reginald John [Jack] (1916–1994).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 6 Jan 2011, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/54814
Stein, Rick. "Rick Stein's Cornwall." BBC, Series 1, Episode 10, 15 Jan 2021
Please do not copy, share or use any content on this blog without obtaining prior permission.