Charlestown Beach St Austell Cornwall right

St Austell Bay () is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

's south coast which is bounded to the east by Gribbin Head and to the west by Black Head. Since 1 April 2009, it has also been the name of a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, one of four new parishes created on for the

St Austell Saint Austell (, ; ) is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. At the 2021 Census in the United Kingdom, census it had a population of 20,900. History St Austell was a village centred ...

area. It lies southeast of the town of

Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay & Bodmin'' and stretches along the coast from Charlestown in the north to Black Head in the south. It includes the communities of Charlestown, Duporth, Porthpean ( Higher and Lower Porthpean) and

Trenarren Trenarren () is a hamlet northeast of Pentewan in mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey ''Landranger 200; Newquay, Bodmin & surrounding area, 1:50 000''. 1988 A. L. Rowse the historian lived in his retirement in Trenarren House. T ...

and is represented by seven councillors. In 2023, a

seagrass meadow A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries. Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and ...

, one of the largest in the UK, was discovered off the coast of St Austell Bay. Divers which were sent in to examine the site recorded 56 species living there, which included short-snouted seahorses and

broadnosed pipefish The broadnosed pipefish or deepnosed pipefish (''Syngnathus typhle'') is a fish of the family Syngnathidae (seahorses and pipefishes). It is native to the Eastern Atlantic ocean from Vardø in Norway, the Baltic Sea (north to the Gulf of Finlan ...

. The divers also examined beds of

maerl Maerl (also rhodolith) is a collective name for non- geniculate coralline red algae with a certain growth habit. Maerl grows at a rate of c. 1 mm per year. It accumulates as unattached particles and forms extensive beds in suitable subli ...

a little further out from the coast, where they found an additional 66 species, including the curled octopus and streaked gurnard.

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Civil parishes in Cornwall Beaches of Cornwall Populated coastal places in Cornwall {{Restormel-geo-stub