Found in Huw's garden

 
Though the Romaldesham carvings would seem to be the oldest set of Shrewsbury loggerheads in existence (outside of documents and seals), there is another claimant.

The carving you see in the photo is likely a capital (head of a pillar) from an ancient town church. It is early medieval in age and was found in the Shrewsbury garden that once belonged to the antiquarian & author Huw Owen. (Owen doesn’t record what he thought it was).
It is now on display at Shrewsbury Museum.

Huw, who along with colleague John Blakeway was responsible for The History of Shrewsbury (1825), is also in Shrewsbury Museum, where a portrait of the pair has pride of place.  (See a detail of the portrait - showing Huw -, left).

However..., modern archaeologists (see the Salopian History report) want to say it is a loggerhead - which means it would predate the earliest solid evidence we have of loggerheads by over 200 years.

Hmm.  Could it really be a (single) loggerhead?
Maybe.

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Panther-esque?

 

The Shropshire Carvers group was at the Shrewsbury Food Festival last weekend. Some of the work was truly amazing; the skill and patience that must go into making the pieces is hard to imagine.

This particular piece drew my eye of course.  The faces sorta reminded me of The Pink Panther (as portrayed in the cartoon series), and that made me smile.

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Oldest loggerheads

 
This may be the oldest full set of loggerheads (outside of seals or manuscripts) still in existence.  It was in Shrewsbury’s old Romaldesham Hall, which was demolished in 1760, so this set possibly dates back to the 17th century.
It now has pride of place in Shrewsbury Museum.

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Atcham 'new' bridge

 
There are two bridges in Atcham, side by side - which seems slightly unnecessary, but when it seemed the old bridge was going to be replaced, it was given a heritage listing, so it couldn't just be demolished.

So, right alongside it, Shropshre County Council built a new bridge - which is what you see in the photo.  It crosses the Rivern Severn, and carries the main road through the village.

It was opened in 1929 by the rather famous politician & writer Herbert Morrison, who was the transport minister at the time.

The involvement of the county council explains the loggerheads' presence. 

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Loggerheads lying about

 

The Abbey Public Gardens, by the English Bridge in Shrewsbury, doubles as a sort of monumental rockery - with fragments of antique stonework around each of its corners.
According to the book 'Public Sculpture of Worcestershire & Shropshire', the piece of decorative work in our photo is “a coat of arms showing three leopards, swags and foliage, which surmounts a collection of crossed swords, maces and fasces” (all are symbols of authority).
However, the story of this particular loggerheads set is not properly known. 

Some of the fragments in the gardens are certainly remnants of the old Shrewsbury Guildhall, which was demolished in 1834.  And there is a theory that this artwork is also from there. However, in a contemporaneous drawing (see pic below), the arms just above the doorway don't look quite the same.

Shrewsbury Guildhall 1796 by Ingelby, detail (from Wikimedia Commons)

The Abbey Gardens were originally the site of the stoneyard of John Carline The Elder (1730-95) who was both an architect and a sculptor.  He seems to have been a collector of pieces discarded from demolished buildings as well as a maker in his own right.
So, are these loggerheads a piece he found?  Or a piece he made, only for it never to be used? 

The gardens, though small, are worth a quick visit.  Among the old Guildhall stonework lying about in the gardens, is the head of Justice, and some old Ionic column capitals.

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