Earl Roger in gold & blue

 

Thanks to JT for responding to my post about Earl Roger of Montgomery, the original Norman overlord of Shrewsbury.  I was mulling there over the theory that the gold & blue colouring in the loggerheads might have come from Earl Roger's shield of arms (even though if he had a set of arms, I couldn't find them).

JT pointed me in the direction of the 17th century map made by John Speed, a copy of which is to be found in the Civil War Room at Shrewsbury Museum.  Speed clearly has Roger's colours as gold & blue. 
However, as Speed lived five hundred years after Roger, he may have just been responding to a 'folk tradition'.

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Women's Institute softens with age

Over the years organisations change their logos - a way to adapt to modern times or just as a way to refresh a look.
The Shropshire Women's Institute did just that. 

The badge on the left comes from the 1950s; and the loggerheads are in the traditional style for the county logo.
The faces are passive, but the colours of blue and amber follow the tradition.

The 'ermine spots' - the decorations that resemble a topiary bush - are unusual in shape, but not completely outside the tradition.

('Erminois' is a heraldic device, meant to resemble the kind of prestigious ermine fur used by the peerage, which features dark spots).

 

 Meanwhile, the current version (right) is a much more cuddly one!  With age, the organisation has clearly mellowed, and taken a softer approach.

The leopards are more like puzzled kittens now and the amber colouring has toned down to a yellow.

What are really different are the ermine spots, which are not in the usual shape, but rather resemble Christmas trees... Admittedly, ermine spots have continued to change over the years, but these are new to us...

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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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