The most westerly ground in Britain is also some of the hardest to dig. Granite comes up shallow, the weather comes in off the Atlantic unbroken, and what sits under a Penwith site has to be established before a price means anything. One contractor, from the first cut to the finished build.
St Just stands on the Penwith granite, the last town before Cape Cornwall and Land's End, and the rock does not stay politely out of the way. It comes up shallow. An excavation priced on soft ground stops dead at a level nobody allowed for, and a foundation that was drawn as a trench fill becomes a breaking job with a very different programme behind it.
Exposure is the second constant. This is the most weather-beaten corner of the county, open to the Atlantic on three sides, which is why the building stock is granite and why so much of it is bedded in lime. Anything that is dug, poured or tied here is working against wind and driven rain from the day it goes in.
Then there is what the mining left. St Just sits inside the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, alongside Botallack, the Crowns engine houses and Cot Valley, and historic shafts, adits and made ground are a genuine consideration on plots across the parish. None of that is a reason not to build. It is a reason to establish the ground before the machine arrives, through the historic mapping and the site investigation, so the excavation is priced against what is actually there.
Controlled demolition, structural strip outs and clearance of old outbuildings and agricultural structures, with the waste removed and recycled.
Site clearance, muck away, excavation and setting out on plots where the rock, not the drawing, decides how deep the machine gets in a day.
Foundations, structural concrete, formwork and steel fixing, founded on rock where the ground offers it and designed against the bearing strata where it does not.
Extensions, renovations, propping and steels in granite property that was never built to carry a modern opening.
Foul and surface water on ground that will not always take a soakaway, so the discharge route is settled by test rather than by habit.
Reinforced concrete walls holding sloping Penwith ground, poured to an engineer's design with the drainage behind them built as part of the wall.
The person who prices the dig is the person driving the machineMatt Richards visits the site himself and operates the excavator on it, so a change in the ground is read by the person who quoted it.
A written quote, with the conditions that would move itScope, sequence and the ground assumptions the figure depends on, set out on paper before anything starts rather than argued about at base level.
Delivered to the engineer's drawingFoundations, reinforced concrete and retaining structures built to architects' detail and under external structural engineers' direction.
£5m public liability, including groundworks and demolition up to 15 metresA large share of policies in this trade exclude demolition outright.
One contractor across the whole sequence, which matters more the further west a site sits and the fewer trades are prepared to travel to it.
Hard rock is the story on this side of the peninsula, and the nearest published example is the St Ives retaining wall, where Blue Elvan was hit at base level and had to be packed out before installation could go ahead. Foundations, retaining structures and drainage on granite are the work West Penwith generates.
The reviews below come straight from our Google Business Profile, so what you are reading is current rather than selected.
Based on 5 Google reviews
Great company to work with. Professional, reliable and well organised from start to finish. Communication is always clear, sites are well run & the team are a pleasure to deal with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and look forward to working together again!
Read more on GoogleCornwall Civils have been working on a complex external works package for our project in St Ives. Their works have included an extensive concrete retaining wall, in-situ concrete stairs and an in-ground modular drainage system.
Read more on GoogleCornwall Civils handled a tricky concrete shuttering, steel work, and pour for us on an emergency job. They stepped in at very short notice and worked through nights and weekends to get it done. The quality of their work was excellent, and their commitment was outstanding.
Read more on GoogleI recently had the pleasure of working with Matry at Cornwall Civils and Construction, and I couldn’t be more impressed with the service provided.
Read more on GoogleOne further five-star rating was left on Google without a written review.
St Just sits at the western end of the run we work week to week, out along the B3306 and the moor road from our base.
The full map sits on our areas we cover across west Cornwall page.
Send the postcode, the drawings and anything you already hold on the ground, and Matt will come out and look at the levels, the access and what the excavation is likely to meet.
Call Matt Richards on 07958 102538 · Get a free quote online
14 The Strand, Newlyn, Penzance, TR18 5HN
Phone: 07958 102538
Email: info@cornwallcivilsandconstruction.co.uk
Hours: Mon to Fri 07:00 to 17:00 · Sat 08:00 to 12:00
Sunday: emergency call out only
Last updated: 22 September 2026
