Living in St Austell

St Austell is the town you drive through on the way to the postcard places, which is exactly why some people should live in it. The white clay tips are the local landscape. Charlestown's harbour and the south coast beaches are close. Eden is closer still, and it is a day out, not a personality.

The town has the shops, the college, the side streets and the new estates. House prices in the Land Registry town name sit below Falmouth, Fowey and Padstow. You are buying convenience and giving up the daily view.

That trade is worth making for a lot of moves, and a disappointment if the search was really for Fowey. Read both guides before you decide which one you are actually choosing.

Who it suits. People who want a house, a school and a supermarket, with the coast close rather than outside the window.

The catch. It will not feel like a holiday. The clay landscape is industrial, and the town centre is ordinary.