Coloured loggerheads

 
It's quite unsual to see a coloured firemark, as on this house in Meole Brace, a village near Shrewsbury. This probably means the item has been acquired as a curio and then painted.
Such firemarks (numbered plaques issued by local fire insurance companies) are now regarded as antiques.
However, the colours are spot on - gold/amber for the leopards' heads, and blue for the background - so, truly Salopian loggerheads! 

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Salop House mark

 

You'd think there would be something distinctively Salopian about a building called Salop House (on College Hill in Shrewsbury).
But no, nothing one can see - except for the insurance badge.

Insurance badges are ubiquitous in Shrewsbury. Used by fire insurance companies to work out which homes were insured with them, they were also a marker for a fire engine in days gone by. Wrong insurance mark - and the fire engine left without helping!

The 'Salop Fire Office' was the longest-established of these companies, and its marks, some of which are over 200 years old, are still on frontages today all over the county. As you can see, they carry the loggerheads plus the word SALOP.