English Channel port, Restormel borough, administrative and historic county of Cornwall, England. Fowey lies on the west bank of the sheltered Fowey estuary. It held a leading position among Cornish ports from the 14th to the 16th century because of its export of tin. The area's tin mines closed by the late 20th century, but the port continued to export china clay quarried locally at Saint Austell. Pop. (2001) 2,273.