Years of work promoting the Cornish dialect have led to a Helston man receiving a prestigious medal at this year's Gorsedh celebrations.

Paul Phillips, a former mayor of Helston, received a special award through his role as Federation of Old Cornwall Societies' dialect recorder. This came in the form of an Awen medal, made in Cornwall by St Justin Jewellery, which was presented on Thursday ahead of this year's Esedhvos Festival and bardic ceremony in Newquay at the weekend.

Mr Phillips volunteered for the role around six years ago and his duties include receiving dialect words and sayings and them entering them, with their meanings, onto a spread sheet to be shared on the Federation’s website.

There are now just short of 7,000 words and approximately 2,000 sayings and phrases, but he is always on the lookout for more.

Mr Phillips said: "I had no idea there was such an award, but that doesn’t make me feel any the less proud, especially as I understand I was nominated by one of my peers.

"Cornish dialect is a passion of mine and I do put in many hours on it; not only getting it ready for the Internet by also by writing dialect stories and poems, which I must admit do not come easy."