Shropshire military's guidon

  

In the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum, you’ll find this guidon (a kind of large military pennant), which outlines the battle honours of the Shropshire Yeomanry.  Although the regiment goes back to the 1790s, the first service overseas that its members saw came in 1900.  
Its service over the next 20 years was so distinguished that it needed a guidon just for the conflicts it had taken part in during the two decades!

What also interests us is the loggerheads in the guidon’s centre.  The Yeomanry had always used the loggerheads as its main symbol, but – up to this point – they had used the simple ‘Shrewsbury loggerheads’ design (see pic right).

But this guidon, created in the 1920s, shows an alternative loggerheads design.  The guidon actually shows the ‘Shropshire loggerheads’, i.e. the arms of the ceremonial county of Shropshire.

This change reflects an odd quarrel which had taken place in the 1890s.  In that decade, Shropshire County Council was formed; and, as expected, it took the Shrewsbury loggerheads for its symbol (by extension the Shrewsbury loggerheads had, for some 300 years, also been the symbol of Shropshire). 
However, the other boroughs of Shropshire were not happy about this – and forced a change.  When the county council applied for a set of arms, soon after its formation, it proposed and got a radical new variant of the loggerheads (which you can see in the guidon).  The story is told in the The Mysteries Of The Loggerheads book.
It seems that the Yeomanry fell in line with the change fairly quickly! 

Sadly, the Yeomanry do not exist any longer as such.

Incidentally, today (February 23rd) is officially ‘Shropshire Day’.

 

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

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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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