RESTORMEL
Additions : 1974 Borough of St. Austell with Fowey, Newquay Urban
District and St. Austell Rural District.
Origin/meaning :
In the shield are seen the ancient ship from the seal of Fowey, the saltire
raguly from the device used by the two St. Austells, and the four herrings,
also on a saltire, from the arms of Newquay, combined in a saltire raguly
nowy. The saltire is blue, like that of Newquay, on a white background, like
that of the St. Austell Device.
The crest-wreath and mantling are blue and white, which are symbolic of the
whole area's principal economic assets - the sea and the china clay
industry. Above the crest-wreath is a circlet showing three of the bezants
on black, taken from the Duchy and County of Cornwall arms and indicating
three Cornish authorities. Out of the circlet rises Restormel Castle from which the Borough takes its name, and from it in turn rises the red lion, crowned with a gold ducal coronet, from the arms of Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, who came into possession of Restormel Castle in about 1270. He granted a gild merchant to the ancient Borough of Grampound in St. Austell Rural District,
and the shield with the red lion and gold bezants on a black border was
engraved on the borough seal. The lion holds aloft a thistle, taken from the heraldic 'rebus' or pun upon the name de Cardinan ('cardon' being Norman French for 'thistle'), the family which held Restormel and from whom the castle
devolved to the Earls of Cornwall.
The motto in Cornish - RO AN MOR HAG AN TYR - 'From the sea and from the
land', and recognises the Borough's connection with the sea (fishing and
tourism) and the land (china clay and agriculture).
Literature : Information provided by Laurence Jones