Christmas baubles

 
The town council's Christmas tree has taken its usual place at this time of year in the centre of town, by the side of the indoor market. Around the base of the tree is its protective wrapping - complete with images of loggerhead baubles...

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Where are the souvenirs?

 
If you're looking for Xmas stocking fillers, you may be wondering where all the Shrewsbury loggerheads souvenirs are. When one sees the large amount of Shropshire loggerheads on sale in souvenir shops (see photo above), it's a sort of mystery.

Part of the answer is that Shropshire County Council wisely allowed its arms to be used in a community flag project, which is why these Shropshire arms are everywhere, even on flags.
By contrast, the Shrewsbury loggerheads (the plain three leopards faces on a blue background, i.e. the arms of the town) can't be found.  Shrewsbury Town Council has so far not come to a similar community arrangement... which is a great shame.
If you have more information on why this is, we'd love to know. Please use the comments box below or email us.

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Beery spottedness in Shrewsbury

 
The Joules Brewery, and its pubs, which once used to be based in Staffordshire, are now very much a Shropshire concern.  One of their latest acquisitions is the Henry Tudor Bar in Shrewsbury, inside the old and very historic Henry Tudor House.

As part of the refurbishment that the brewery undertook (which was beautifully done), it installed some new coloured windows. These two particular panels represent the arms of the brewery itself and of Shrewsbury.
Unusually, they've given the leopard-loggerheads a marked spottedness, but that's ok...

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Loggerheads in red

 

Here's another mystery. In the east window of St George's Church at Pontesbury (some seven miles from Shrewsbury) is this set of loggerheads.  But it's not clear why they are here. 

Also, though they have the right colouring for the leopards' faces (gold), the background is a rather luscious red rather than the traditional blue.   
Did the stained-glass artist of the time (the late Victorian era) simply not realise?   Or, is this gold and red version particular to some organisation or family?
If you know... let us know! 

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Big banner at Henry Tudor House

 
This is a detail taken from a fascinating illustration in Thomas Auden's 1905 Book Of Shrewsbury.  It shows one of the town's most famous historic buildings, Henry Tudor House, with a huge loggerheads banner hanging from it. Sadly, it's not clear if this flag-display was a permanent feature of the house at the time, or put up for a special occasion. 

Oddly, the artist only shows one shield of arms in the stained-glass of the central first-floor window, yet we know there are six shields today (see previous post).  Was this just a mistake by the artist, or were the current windows put in after 1905?  It would be lovely to know - suggestions please!

At the time of this illustration, a fishmonger called Harry Mudd tenanted Henry Tudor House (the ground floor at least), which is why there is a reference to Grimsby on the frontage, Grimsby being thought to be the home of the very best fish.

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Missing Angel puzzle

 

Here’s a real puzzle.  This image appears on the internet now and again, and is described ‘Painting at St Julian’s Church Shrewsbury, 1643’.  The image comes from a small hand-painted paper now in store at the Shrewsbury Town Archives, but there is no information as to exactly what old artefact this is a painting of... 
We don't know what the 1643 date refers to either, as the image itself was probably painted from the original (which has now disappeared) in the nineteenth century.

The only clue is in a line above the angel’s head which says "Angel taken from the tower of St Julian's".  

Is it a representation of an old coloured carving that was once on the tower side, or of a fresco once on its inside?
The people at St Julian’s Church don’t know anything about it and googling doesn’t lead to a result.

It would be wonderful to know some more of the story. Anybody know anything?

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Stratford mash-up

The large stock room of the WH Smith store in Shrewsbury’s Pride Hill is a treasure trove for stained-glass enthusiasts. (Sadly it’s off-limits to the public now).
Its windows were installed in the 1920s by Morris & Co, which had created the most opulent tea-rooms the town had seen. As well as the windows, a grand fireplace adorned the space.  (Fortunately, the windows have not been touched since those days). 
As you’d expect, loggerheads, as a symbol of Salopian pride, were all over the room.

The photos above & right show a detail from the central one of the six windows. 
Actually, although it shows three leopards heads, these are not 'Salopian loggerheads', but the three leopards’ heads from the town arms of Stratford upon Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare.  The reason for the Stratford connection is that the room was fashioned in mock-Elizabethan style.

However, it’s a rather bizarre image really; the artist appears to be mashing up the arms of Stratford, a scroll with a pen (to represent Shakespeare I think) and the windmill-tilting scene from the book of Don Quixote.  (The arms of Stratford should also have a blue chevron, not a red).
Very odd mix.  Can someone explain it?

It would also be lovely if someone carried out a full-scale examination of all these windows before too much time goes by.

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Shropshire earl's leopards

 
The Newports were an ancient Shropshire family which made it into the peerage when Francis Newport became Viscount Newport in 1675.  He then progressed upwards to be created Earl of Bradford (his esatte in mid-Shropshire) in 1694. His son later acquired Weston Park in the east of the county.

What's fascinating about the Earl's shield of arms is that it specifically references leopards. The spotted fur of leopards is quite clear in this device.   That's an important detail, because there's always been an argument over whether the loggerheads are in fact lions, though many heraldic experts down the years have actually identified the figures as leopards. 
Obviously, Francis plumped for leopards...

These leopards are not standard loggerheads. Standard loggerheads would be in blue & gold, and show no chevron - but neverthelss the earl's arms' configuration is related to them.

(Detail taken from the contemporary 'Hundreds in Shropshire' map by R Blome, which was dedicated to the first Earl)

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Shrewsbury's Welsh newspaper

 
The ‘Welsh Bridge Collectibles’ shop in Shrewsbury is a joy for any antiquarian.  Over three floors of a very old building, it has anything a collector of curios might want, from old books (of course) to toys of the past to figurines.  The best thing is that it’s properly arranged – no rooting about in disorderly & dusty junk!

In the old newspapers section, I found this Salopian Journal from 1837.  Like a number of Shrewsbury-based newspapers of the time, it carries the loggerheads on its masthead.  What’s very interesting is the newspaper’s description of itself – as the 'Courier Of Wales' (see pic right).  What we modern Salopians forget is that, until the middle of the nineteenth century, Shrewsbury’s area of interest outside the town was not the English West Midlands, but the North Wales region: thus, at this time, the town still had a very Welsh feeling.

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Design in stained-glass

 
It’s a shame that Shrewsbury's St Julian’s Church is now ‘redundant’ and so is closed nearly all of the time. It has a lot of lovely heraldic and decorative stained-glass among its features.
Fortunately, it was acquired by a man who has decided to keep the building as it is; and so it is still used at least a little, by a group that gathers for prayer and by the Greek Orthodox community.

In the mid-nineteenth century, David Evans was the go-to craftsman for stained-glass in Shrewsbury (and Shropshire).  His bright colours and design are actually quite special; and it’s believed that these loggerheads, in a window of the north side of the nave, are probably by him. Wh they are there... is anybod's guess.

If you want to know more about David Evans, one authority is Robert Walker and it’s worth checking to find out if he has any talks coming up.

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Proud Salopians take pride

 
June is ‘Pride’ month when gay members of the community, and their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual orientation colleagues come together to celebrate who they are.

Pride meets the loggerheads in this rainbow logo – used by gay fans of Shrewsbury Town to denote their group, which they call the Proud Salopians Fans (founded 2019).
The group’s name is a clever play on words, as it brings together the ancient phrase ‘the Proud Salopian’ and the idea of Gay Pride. 

PS   If you're confused by the date 1886, that is the date the club was founded, not the group!

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Darwin and the loggerheads

 

Shrewsbury’s most famous son is the naturalist Charles Darwin; he was born and raised in the town.
So one might wonder, in an idle moment, if he was aware of the loggerheads.   Well, actually, he had to be if he was at all observant, but here’s proof…

On one side (the servants’ side) of his father’s house The Mount, is a Salop Fire Insurance Office badge, plaque #5448. 
An entry at Shropshire Archives suggests that it was placed there around 1810, around the time Charles was born.
So Charles must have seen it when he was a young lad.

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The leg carries the badge

 
There are few greater signs of fealty than having one’s body tattooed with the badge of the institution that commands one’s loyalty…  Here we have a particularly good instance: this leg will carry the loggerheads-badge of Shrewsbury Town FC for many many years. 
Fans fought hard for the loggerheads badge when the club wanted to do away with it - and the fans won!
Curiously, the gentleman to whom the leg belongs is not alone in this type of homage. On summer days, when shorts are ubiquitous, one can spot quite a few of them in and around the club’s Meadow Stadium. 

It's interesting to note that, as well as the loggerheads motto Floreat Salopia (Let Shrewsbury Flourish), our man has the words 'Proud Salopian' tattooed too.  That phrase has its own, separate, but equally fascinating story...

This limb was photographed at The Prince Of Wales pub, a place where fans gather to celebrate their passion. Thanks to MC for the sighting.

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It's Loggerheads Day!

 

Today (May 2nd) is Loggerheads Day… at least, so far as Shrewsbury Town Football Club supporters are concerned.  It was on this day in 2015 that the Shrewsbury loggerheads were rightfully restored to the club’s badge, after a hiatus in which a rather ordinary lion had replaced them (Lord knows why!).

It only happened however because of a year-long and very loud campaign by fans (which was of course dubbed the Bring Back The Loggerheads Campaign). To their credit, the club’s owners listened, and then agreed with the fans. 

The campaign is remembered in a lovely poem, a framed copy of which is to be found in The Loggerheads Pub in central Shrewsbury.  It’s a funny pastiche on the stirring St Crispian's Day speech by the king in Shakespeare's play of Henry V.  It’s really clever.

The mystery is:  who was the author?

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Up front on Shrewsbury Cathedral

 

Here’s another odd set of loggerheads.  They seem crammed in, rather higgledy-piggledy, in what is admittedly quite a small space for them, a half-shield.

This arrangement is on the front of Shrewsbury Roman Catholic Cathedral, over the main doors.  The most likely explanation for the loggerheads being there is that, at the time the cathedral was being built in 1851, there was a deep suspicion of Catholics, and historians suspect that the cathedral authorities were trying to exhibit their very real loyalty to the town by displaying the loggerheads.

(It might have been better if they’d got the configuration of the loggerheads right though!)

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The loggerheads of finance

 

Standing proud on the corner on Shrewsbury’s main square, the Salop Old Bank building is impressively stolid – as befits a bank!
The business had some pedigree: the Salop ‘Old’ Bank, set up in 1885, was the child of the already long-established Salop Bank (1812).

The loggerheads’ connection in this instance is in the institution’s bank-notes (which the bank issued themselves): the decorative motif on the left of the notes features the loggerheads.  The museum archives has a very good example of one of the bank’s £5 notes (SHYMS_N_2013_0017a).

Incidentally, this is yet another instance of a town politician associating himself with the loggerheads. Robert Burton, the bank’s main partner, had been town mayor for a while.

The bank didn’t last long, being taken over in 1907 and eventually falling into the hands of the Lloyds Banking Group – you can still see some arms carved into the side of the building.
But no longer is the building connected with banks. It’s now a jeweller’s.

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Found in Huw's garden

 
Though the Romaldesham carvings would seem to be the oldest set of Shrewsbury loggerheads in existence (outside of documents and seals), there is another claimant.

The carving you see in the photo is likely a capital (head of a pillar) from an ancient town church. It is early medieval in age and was found in the Shrewsbury garden that once belonged to the antiquarian & author Huw Owen. (Owen doesn’t record what he thought it was).
It is now on display at Shrewsbury Museum.

Huw, who along with colleague John Blakeway was responsible for The History of Shrewsbury (1825), is also in Shrewsbury Museum, where a portrait of the pair has pride of place.  (See a detail of the portrait - showing Huw -, left).

However..., modern archaeologists (see the Salopian History report) want to say it is a loggerhead - which means it would predate the earliest solid evidence we have of loggerheads by over 200 years.

Hmm.  Could it really be a (single) loggerhead?
Maybe.

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Heralding Ludlow

 
The newly refurbished Ludlow Museum features a display case with the costumes from the town pageant in 1934.

This one – simply labelled a ‘Herald’s outfit, in blue’ – carries the three loggerheads. There was no reason for a costume in a Ludlow pageant to carry the Shrewsbury symbol, so my guess is that the person who made it (they were all hand-made) was a Shrewsbury loyalist!
The maker also got the colours right – the main costume was in blue and the trims in yellow/gold.

These leopards are 'langued' in quite an extreme way - their tongues are very long indeed.

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Lady Catherine & the loggerheads

The front cover of the first edition of Old Shropshire Life (1904) features the loggerheads, as you’d expect, even though these are the Salop loggerheads and not the Shropshire County ones.  They are not ‘langued’ either.

The book was written by the ‘minor author’ Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell, who lived with her family at the grand house of Wenlock Abbey. They were one of the county’s leading families in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Catherine was something of a beauty, being sketched by the artist Dante Rossetti, but it was literature that inspired her. She wrote novels as well as profiles of the county and her life. Major novelists including Henry James and Thomas Hardy were frequently invited to stay.

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