Lostwithiel
Template:GBdot Lostwithiel (Cornish: Lostwydhyel) is a civil parish and small town in Cornwall, England at the head of the estuary of the River Fowey. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,739.
The town lies on the A390 road from Tavistock to Truro.
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 railway's workshops were built here, but the remaining buildings were transformed into apartments in 2004. A branch line takes china clay trains to Fowey.
Lostwithiel's most notable buildings are St Bartholomew's Church and Restormel Castle. There is a small museum devoted to the history of the town. Once a stannary town, and for a period the most important in the country, it is now much decayed. There is a fine early fourteenth century bridge with five pointed arches, and nearby the remains of the Stannery Court, with its Coinage Hall - this was the centre of royal authority over tin-mining, and 'coinage' meant the knocking off of the corner of each block of tin for the benefit of the Duchy of Cornwall. The small Guildhall has an arcaded ground floor. The old Grammar School has been converted into dwellings.
Lostwithiel is a historic borough. It 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.
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