Pengwern tales

 

Although there are a couple of very good antiquarian book-stores in Shrewsbury (such as Second Chapter) and a very good chain, the only independent bookshop in the town selling new books is Pengwern, in Fish Street.  It sells a range of titles, with a special section of history books by local authors too, including ‘The Mysteries Of The Loggerheads’.

Susan Caroline, who runs Pengwern, named her establishment after the obscure pre-medieval city inhabited by the ancient Britons.  

According to the 12th century historian, Gerald of Wales, Shrewsbury was the site of Pengwern; its palace was located where the Old St Chad’s Church is now. 
This story was carried on right into the nineteenth century, being repeated by the town chronicler Henry Pidgeon.

Sadly, the story cannot be evidenced. There is no convincing proof as to where Pengwern really was.

But it is remembered at least - in the name of a bookshop on a cobbled road in Shrewsbury.
 

 A new book has been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Loggerheads camouflaged

 

This particular set of loggerheads is to be found on Pride Hill, Shrewsbury’s main shopping street - but it almost goes unseen - because it merges so much into its background.

This set is one of those carved into the portals of the old Pride Hill Shopping Centre, which was built in 1988.  Although a private firm had developed the site, the firm clearly felt that a nod to Shrewsbury’s past was needed – hence the loggerheads.

The centre was one of three such shopping complexes in or around Pride Hill in those days, but it finally closed in 2021, and now only one of those three malls (the 'Darwin') remains. The site … still guarded by its loggerheads… awaits redevelopment.

 A new book has been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Seal in history books

  

The Great Common Seal of old Shrewsbury may be 600 years old but it continues to be a talking point to this day.  Not only did its appearance mark the first sighting of the loggerheads in history, but it is a fascinating artefact in its own right.

More than one article has been written about this famous seal (see drawing of the seal, right) over the last ten years – not to mention others about it back in the mid twentieth-century – not least because it inspires so many unanswered mysteries.

The latest such article appears in a new, extremely scholarly book - Shropshire: Art, Architecture and Archaeology from Roman Wroxeter to the Sixteenth Century. The actual article about the seal is titled Shrewsbury's Topographical Seal, written by John Cherry, formerly of the British Museum and the acknowledged expert on the Shrewsbury 1425 seal (as well as other medieval seals).  

Mr Cherry's monograph is almost a detective story, in which he does some deep research into the seal’s beginnings back in the Middle Ages.
A number of mysteries turn up. Not least among them is: why, when Shrewsbury’s churches, town-walls, houses, loggerheads arms, bridges, gateways (and so on) are all depicted on the seal, is the town’s most important building not? For, the fact is that, oddly … there is no sign on the seal of the town’s huge & imposing castle...   
(Mr Cherry does propose an answer to this puzzle, but you’ll have to buy the book to find it out!).   

The book does cost £45 and is, admittedly, only meant for the serious academic, but if that doesn’t deter you, you will learn things from it about Shropshire’s history that you never knew before – including about some of its seals!

(The book is also listed as The British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions XLV - published 2026)

 

A new book has been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Taking the Shrewsbury biscuit

 

The Shrewsbury Biscuits & Pastry Makers company has a rather interesting place-holder image on its website.  It shows a set of loggerheads in a stripped-back design (see photo above). It’s a surprisingly subtle, clever image.

You don’t hear so much about the Shrewsbury Biscuit these days; once upon a time you could buy them all over the town.  Based on a very simple recipe, like all ‘people’s foods’ are (though the twist is always in the way the individual baker makes them), their history goes back to the 1500s.  There’s even still a plaque in town marking the site of ‘Mister Palin’s Shrewsbury Biscuits Shop’, which flourished in the eighteenth century.

In the photo above, you’ll notice some small text in the corner of the image (“J Speed”). This acknowledges the fact that these loggerheads are based on ones designed by the seventeenth century map-maker John Speed. Copies of Speed’s map of Shropshire, which shows the loggerheads, are held in Shrewsbury Museum.

 

A new book has been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Shropshire military's guidon

  

In the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum, you’ll find this guidon (a kind of large military pennant), which outlines the battle honours of the Shropshire Yeomanry.  Although the regiment goes back to the 1790s, the first service overseas that its members saw came in 1900.  
Its service over the next 20 years was so distinguished that it needed a guidon just for the conflicts it had taken part in during the two decades!

What also interests us is the loggerheads in the guidon’s centre.  The Yeomanry had always used the loggerheads as its main symbol, but – up to this point – they had used the simple ‘Shrewsbury loggerheads’ design (see pic right).

But this guidon, created in the 1920s, shows an alternative loggerheads design.  The guidon actually shows the ‘Shropshire loggerheads’, i.e. the arms of the ceremonial county of Shropshire.

This change reflects an odd quarrel which had taken place in the 1890s.  In that decade, Shropshire County Council was formed; and, as expected, it took the Shrewsbury loggerheads for its symbol (by extension the Shrewsbury loggerheads had, for some 300 years, also been the symbol of Shropshire). 
However, the other boroughs of Shropshire were not happy about this – and forced a change.  When the county council applied for a set of arms, soon after its formation, it proposed and got a radical new variant of the loggerheads (which you can see in the guidon).  The story is told in the The Mysteries Of The Loggerheads book.
It seems that the Yeomanry fell in line with the change fairly quickly! 

Sadly, the Yeomanry do not exist any longer as such.

Incidentally, today (February 23rd) is officially ‘Shropshire Day’.

 

A new book has been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Rail poster is sealed

 

Posters from the 1930s that promoted Shrewsbury as a ‘destination town’ are fascinating; they seem to tell social historians so much about attitudes of the time.
For us though, the most interesting element of this poster is the way that the ancient and original town-seal (which dates to 1425) has pride of place on it (see full pic below). 

(The loggerheads first entered history when they appeared on this seal - although the details of what’s on the seal are too blurred on this poster, sadly, to allow one to see much of them).

Why the PR people of the time thought the town’s seal would grab the attention of potential tourists is difficult to fathom. Perhaps its presence on this poster does underline the town’s ‘historicity’ though.

Incidentally, the scene in the poster is real.  It shows the public gardens in front of Castle Gates House, from which one can go (through the arch) into the grounds of the castle (now a museum), with Laura’s Tower at the right. 

The style of poster was not unusual.  The major railway companies produced lots of these sorts of posters, all with a very similar design approach.  They were supposed to encourage people to take trips (on railways of course) to destination-towns such as York and Nottingham, and many more.  
One can almost date Shrewsbury’s mass-tourism profile from the era in which these posters started to appear.

 

A new book has been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Pigs wear gold & blue

 

There is tenuous evidence pointing to a high-level connection in the Middle Ages between Hereford and Shrewsbury. However, the evidence is circumstantial, nothing solid so far.  
(If anyone knows different, would they please email us?).

One pointer is the blue & gold/amber colouring which is seen in various heraldry of the two towns.  Admittedly, it’s not a colour combination that’s unique to these two towns, but it underwrites the supposed connection.  
The loggerheads emblem always comes in blue & gold/amber colouring, as does the symbol of Hereford Cathedral. 

One example of the colour pairing in Hereford is these pigs – which wear livery of blue and yellow bends. They are seen on the tomb of John Swinfield (died 1311) in Hereford Cathedral.

 

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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