'' by
J.M.W. Turner, 1812 The village takes its name from the
Celtic saint
Saint Maudez (Mawe), who may have come from Ireland but is mainly venerated in Brittany. A name: 'Musidum' in Roman times, has subsequently been applied to St. Mawes, although the source is dubious. St Mawes was once an important town and was made a borough in 1563, returning two members to parliament. It was disfranchised in 1832. The population in the 1841 census was 941.The town was described, in 1880, by an anonymous writer, ... as a quiet little fishing village, and consists of a long straggling street, fronting the water; it has, however a good pier, which was erected in 1854; and a sea-wall, with a parapet was built not long ago, along the centre front of the town.
St Mawes Castle is a well-preserved coastal fortress from the time of
Henry VIII, built to counter the invasion threat from the
Continent.
Charles Henderson, writing in 1925, says of St Mawes, "an ancient fishing town which in late years has assumed the different and more sophisticated character of a watering place". The seal of St Mawes was Az. a bend lozengy Or between a tower in the sinister chief Arg. and a ship with three masts the sail furled in the dexter base of the second, with the legend "Commune Sigillum Burgi de St. Mawes al Mauditt.
Royal family There have been frequent private visits to St Mawes by members of the royal family including
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother,
Princess Margaret and more recently
Charles III and
Queen Camilla, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, who ended their stay in July 2008 by naming the new St Mawes ferry
The Duchess of Cornwall.
The Queen visited St Mawes in 1977 during her
Silver Jubilee Tour. In June 2002 for The Queen's
Golden Jubilee and, with a brand new cast in June 2012 for the
Diamond Jubilee, The
Queen's Coronation was re-enacted in great detail by the young people of the village in a ceremony entitled "The Children's Coronation". ==Church history==