Holmbush

Holmbush is a village in Cornwall, sitting within the suburban area of St Austell (postcode district PL25). Once a hub for tin and copper mining in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it still bears the quietly industrial traces of that era: a handful of houses huddled to the south of the A390 speak to its earlier, working landscape. The settlement took on a new shape in the 1970s, when housing and an industrial estate were laid out to the north of the road, forging a modern edge beside its historic roots. Today Holmbush offers a compact story of Cornish change — from miners' lanes to suburban development — condensed along the A390. A particular highlight is the transformation of the former Cuddra mine site. Since 1974 it has been developed as Pinetum Gardens, an attraction holding over 6,000 varieties of plants, many gathered by the owner on plant-hunting expeditions. That unexpected botanical richness gives Holmbush a leafy, curious draw, making it a pleasant detour for anyone exploring St Austell and the surrounding South West.