ST. AUSTELL PARISH HISTORY	Borough Crest War Memorial Parish Guide Main Menu

RESTORMEL BOROUGH CREST
(J. Mosman, OPC)

Adapted circa 1974 by the Restormel Borough Council, for the St. Austell regional government.

(The Borough Council ceased to exist as of April 1, 2009. (the date does rather have a meaning....) The crest is still used in places, however.

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, from the International Civic Heraldry website