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.
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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