How did the name Lostwithiel originate?
The town’s name appears in the Charter of 1189 as Lostuuidiel, which was the attempt of a French-speaking Norman scribe to translate Cornish pronunciation into Latin! Other medieval documents in Latin and Norman French represent it as Lostudiel, Lostwetell, and, in 1234 as Lostwithiel. The town’s name appears first on English maps in the sixteenth century. It appeared initially as Lestethiel or Leshthtiel, than as Lestwithiel or Lostwithiel, and was eventually standardised on nineteenth century Ordnance Survey maps as Lostwithiel.
Various suggestions have been made about the origin of the name. An early view was that it combined two Cornish words: los, meaning ‘tail’ and withiel meaning ‘lion’. The reference here was supposed to be to the Earl of Cornwall, as the royal arms of Normandy included two lions. Another suggestion was that les withiel meant the town of a person named Withiel, reputed to be the first Earl of Cornwall who had a palace at Penknight. Yet another suggestion was that les uchel meant a high or lofty place – not a very likely name for a town deep in a river valley. It is now most widely accepted that the Cornish name for the town used the words lost, gwyth, and yell, combined in pronunciation as Lostwythyell to mean a place at ‘the tail, or end, of the wood’. This fits well the description that a small population at Restormel might apply to the new port hamlet that lies at the end of the Deer Park in the wooded valley of the Fowey. It is possible that the Earl, or one of his advisors with a knowledge of Cornwall made a play on words to refer to both the geographical location and the Norman symbolism. We will probably never know.
Lostwithiel viewed from the Castle walls: the settlement at the 'end of the wood'.
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