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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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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Odd use of the Shrewsbury Great Seal

 

Here’s an odd thing.  We came across this sticker recently, attached to a lamppost in a part of Shrewsbury called The Dana.
What’s odd about it is that, for its central picture, it uses an image of the 600 year-old Great Seal of Shrewsbury.  (On the image of the seal you can just about see some loggerheads, which appeared in history for the first time on this seal).

But… what does it all mean?  The motto has nothing to do with the ancient seal and has, presumably, been written by a modern citizen of the town.  It reads: “One Hand Clapping all things in common all people one”.  But who ‘One Hand Clapping’ is, no one seems to know.

What OHC may have seized upon in using such an ancient image is that the seal was cut, back in 1425, to commemorate “the free commune of Shrewsbury”.  Perhaps OHC would like to see the free commune revived…?
It’s certainly wonderful to think that a dusty old historical artefact seems to have inspired a modern-day idealist…!

 

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

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The Gild's pretty badge

 

The Gild of Freemen of Shrewsbury looks, from a distance, just like another exclusive club, but in fact it has an important role in monitoring the development of the medieval town.

 

The Gild has adopted as its badge an image of the ancient town Common Seal of 1425, which shows the loggerheads on the old town walls.
The Gild has taken a little artistic licence with the badge though, as the seal was not painted, so it had no colours.  The badge looks pretty though!  

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