Lostwithiel

The origin of the name Lostwithiel is a subject much debated. In the 16th century it was thought that the name came from the Roman name Uzella, translated as Les Uchel in Cornish. In the 17th century popular opinion was that the name came from a translation of Lost (a tail) and Withiel (a lion), the lion in question being the lord who lived in the castle.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Current thinking is that the name comes from the Old Cornish Lost Gwydhyel meaning "tail-end of the woodland".{{cite book|last=Mills|first=A. D.|title=The Popular Dictionary of English Place-Names|year=1996|publisher=Parragon Book Service Ltd and Magpie Books|isbn=0-7525-1851-8}} The view from Restormel Castle looking towards the town shows how this may have come to be.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Lostwithiel was founded in the early 12th century by Norman lords who built the nearby Restormel Castle. Lostwithiel received its town charter in 1189.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/see-and-do/history/|title=History of Lostwithiel|website=Lostwithiel.org.uk|access-date=7 June 2020}} In the late 13th century, Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall oversaw the building of the Stannary Palace, the bridge and the square church tower.

The Battle of Lostwithiel, an important battle in the First English Civil War, took place near Lostwithiel in 1644. In it Parliamentarian forces were defeated by the Royalists. The Parliamentarians would go on to win the war but Cornwall remained under Royalist control until 1646.{{cite web |title=Battle of Lostwithiel (1644) |url=http://www.battlefieldsofbritain.co.uk/battle_lostwithiel_1644.html |website=Battlefields of Britain |publisher=CastlesFortsBattles.co.uk network |access-date=1 May 2020 |date=2019 |ref={{sfnref|Battle of Lostwithiel (1644)}}}}

The Lostwithiel constituency elected two members to the Unreformed House of Commons, but was disenfranchised by the Reform Act 1832. It remained a municipal borough until the 1960s, when it became a civil parish. The seal of the borough of Lostwithiel was a shield charged with a castle rising from water between two thistles, in the water two fish, with the legend "Sigillum burgi de Lostwithyel et Penknight in Cornubia".{{cite book|last=Pascoe|first=W. H.|title=A Cornish Armory|page=133|year=1979|publisher=Lodenek Press|location=Padstow, Cornwall|isbn=0-902899-76-7}} Its mayoral regalia includes a silver oar, signifying its former jurisdiction over the River Fowey.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sttRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA23 |title= The Western Antiquary, Or, Devon and Cornwall Note Book |volume= 9–10|year=1890 |page=23|first=William Henry Kearley |last=Wright|publisher=W. H. Luke}}

Jaques Bagratuni, a prince and ambassador of Armenia to Britain, died in Lostwithiel on 23 December 1943 but was buried at Brompton Cemetery in London.{{cite news |editor-last1=Barrington-Ward |editor-first1=Robert |editor-link=Robert Barrington-Ward |title=Major-General J. Bagratuni |work=The Times |issue=49,757 |date=19 January 1944 |page=7|issn=0140-0460}}

The town is situated in the Fowey river valley, positioned between the A390 road from Tavistock to Truro and the upper tidal reaches of the river.Ordnance Survey: Explorer map sheet 107 St Austell & Liskeard, 2008, {{ISBN|0-319-24017-7}}

Lostwithiel railway station is on the Cornish Main Line from Plymouth to Penzance. It is situated on the south side of the town, just across the medieval bridge. The line was originally built for the Cornwall Railway which built its main workshops here, but the surviving workshop buildings were transformed into apartments in 2004. A branch line takes china clay trains to Fowey.{{cite book |last1=Dart |first1=Maurice |title=East Cornwall Mineral Railways |date=2004 |publisher=Middleton Press |isbn=1-904474-22-5}}

The town contains the suburbs of Bridgend to the east and Rosehill and Victoria to the west of the River Fowey.

To the south of the town is the Shirehall Moor nature reserve which follows the course of the River Fowey and opens out to a wide salt marsh.{{Cite web |title=Coulson Park and Shirehall Moor : Lostwithiel |url=https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/see-and-do/visitor-guide/walks-and-paths/coulson-park-and-shirehall-moor/ |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=lostwithiel.org.uk}} The reserve is a haven for birdlife including swans, ducks, egrets, herons, kingfishers and Canada geese.{{Cite web |title=Lostwithiel riverside walk – Mellingey to Coulson park, Pill walk & Shirehall Moor… – Mellingey house |url=https://www.mellingey.co.uk/lostwithiel-riverside-walk-mellingey-coulson-park-pill-walk-shirehall-moor/ |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=mellingey.co.uk}}

File:Lostwithiel.jpg

Lostwithiel's most notable buildings are St Bartholomew's Church and Restormel Castle. Once a stannary town, and for a period the most important in Cornwall, it is now much reduced in importance. There is a fine early fourteenth-century bridge with six pointed arches, and nearby the remains of the Stannary Palace, with its exchequer hall.{{NHLE|desc=Freemasons' Hall|num=1327326|access-date=7 August 2023}} Lostwithiel Guildhall in Fore Street has an arcaded ground floor and contains the local museum.{{NHLE|desc=Guildhall|num=1144227|access-date=7 August 2023}}

File:Lostwithiel - the Stannary Palace - geograph.org.uk - 571361.jpg|The old Stannary Palace

File:Lostwithiel Old Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 56160.jpg|The old Fire Station

File:Methodist Church, Queen Street, Lostwithiel - geograph.org.uk - 666063.jpg|The Methodist Church in Queen Street

File:Lostwithiel (2021-09-05) 25.jpg|Lostwithiel Guildhall

The town has a playing field known as King George V Playing Field. Lostwithiel has several large parks including Coulson Park which was named after Nathaniel Coulson (the San Francisco property magnate) who was raised in Lostwithiel after being abandoned by his father.

The town is host to a number of annual cultural activities including an arts and crafts festival, a beer festival, a week-long carnival in the summer, food and cider festivals in October, and a Dickensian evening in December.{{cite web | title = Annual Events | work = Welcome to Lostwithiel | publisher = Lostwithiel Business Group | access-date = 22 February 2011 | url = http://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/whats-on/annual-events/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120903152815/http://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/whats-on/annual-events/ | archive-date = 3 September 2012 }}

File:Lostwithiel Diamond Jubilee Sculpture.JPG

Cornish wrestling tournaments, for prizes, have been held in Lostwithiel for centuries.Royal Cornwall Gazette, 30 August 1806.Western Times, 28 August 1830. Venues have included the grounds of Lanwithan,Cornish Guardian, 8 July 1937. Coulson ParkThe Western Morning News, 11 July 2006. and the King George V Playing Field.Cornish Guardian, 7 July 2010.

Lostwithiel hosted the Interceltic Games in 1982.

There are two primary schools in Lostwithiel: St Winnow C E School and Lostwithiel Primary School. Both schools are academies. Lostwithiel Primary School is part of the Peninsula Learning Trust Multi Academy Trust and St Winnow C E School is part of The Saints Way Multi Academy Trust. The majority of children aged between 11 and 16 attend Fowey River Academy or Bodmin College.

Lostwithiel Educational Trust is a local charity which makes "grants to local schools and churches, as well as to individuals, for educational purposes"{{cite web|url=http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithoutPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1132910|title=Charity overview|website=charitycommission.gov.uk|access-date=6 May 2018}}

One or two trains each hour stop at Lostwithiel railway station with services in each direction between {{stnlnk|Plymouth}} or {{stnlnk|Penzance}}, many continuing beyond Plymouth to {{stnlnk|Cardiff Central}} or {{stn|London Paddington}}.{{cite web |title=K1 train times |url=https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/train-times |publisher=Great Western Railway |access-date=2023-08-11}}

National Express provides a regular coach service to London which runs via Plymouth for connections to other destinations. The coach stop is located outside the Royal Talbot Hotel.

Bus stops in Lostwithiel are outside the Royal Talbot Hotel and Cott Road phone box.

Lostwithiel was twinned with Pleyber-Christ in Brittany, France in 1979. The people in the Twinning Associations of both towns usually meet up every year, alternating between Lostwithiel and Pleyber-Christ.{{cite web|url=https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/about-the-town/twin-town-pleyber-christ/|title=Lostwithiel's twin town Pleyber Christ, Brittany|website=lostwithiel.org.uk|access-date=6 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180506124811/https://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/about-the-town/twin-town-pleyber-christ/|archive-date=6 May 2018}}

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{{Commons category|Lostwithiel}}

{{Wikivoyage}}

• [http://www.lostwithieltowncouncil.gov.uk/ Lostwithiel Town Council]
• [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/lostwithiel The History of Parliament Trust, Lostwithiel, Borough, from 1386 to 1868]
• [http://www.lostwithiel.org.uk/ Lostwithiel.org.uk] run by Lostwithiel Business Group
• [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/Lostwithiel/index.html GENUKI page]
• [https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20090806120650/http://cornovia.org.uk/htexts/boger01.html Lostwithiel Bridge and its Memories – The Reverend Canon E Boger, 1887]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160310005600/http://oldcornwall.org/lostwithiel.htm Lostwithiel OCS]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120627232848/http://crocat.cornwall.gov.uk/dserve/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Overview.tcl&dsqSearch=((text)='lostwithiel') Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Lostwithiel]

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Category:Towns in Cornwall

Category:Cornish capitals

Category:Civil parishes in Cornwall

Category:History of Cornwall

Category:Coinage Towns