A wax impression

 

Talking of the 1425 Great Seal of Shrewsbury, as we were in the last post, here’s another reference.  The red piece in the bottom row of the photo above is a wax copy of the seal.

Impressions of the seal would have been created by pushing the metal seal into some melting wax on a formal document - to signify the approval of the Shrewsbury town corporation.  (The loggerheads connection to the seal is that the loggerheads were part of its design).

You can find the glass-cabinet in the photo, with all its various seals, very simply: it’s installed in Shrewsbury Abbey, which is open to the public almost every day. 
No one knows how old this wax copy is, though.

 

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

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Earl Roger the overlord

The tomb of Earl Roger de Montgomery in Shrewsbury Abbey is one of the town's most precious heritage assets.  Earl Roger was the Norman lord who was installed as the first Earl of Shrewsbury by William The Conqueror following the Norman invasion of England in 1066.

It's said that the reason that the traditional colours of loggerheads/Shrewsbury are gold & blue is because there were Earl Roger's colours. In fact, though Roger's wife and his son seemed to have arms of gold & blue bars, I can't find a direct link between Roger himself and any gold & blue colouring.  Can anyone help me find out more about this?

The gold & blue colours-combination has persisted for nearly one thousand years in Shrewsbury.  Today, the town's football club play in these same exact colours!

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Freemen loggerheads

 
This corner-detail of a lovely piece of modern stained-glass (the St Benedict Window) in Shrewsbury Abbey reminds us that the sponsors of the window were The Gild (sic) of Freemen of Shrewsbury.  As you'd expect, their badge carries the loggerheads.

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