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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