How Well Do You Know Your Loggerheads??

 

The town council in Shrewsbury is running a special ‘Identify The Loggerheads!’ quiz. It’s part of the celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the loggerheads.

 The process of answering the quiz is a bit of convoluted … but here’s how it works:-

1.  Take a walk around the town's Quarry Park and its fringes.  You will find twenty posters on your walk, each numbered, and each with a photo on it of a set of loggerheads. Check the photo above for an example - it is 'poster number one'.
The council have provided a leaflet indicating where all the posters are (see pic right - to see the image more clearly, just click on it once to enlarge it).

2.  Each of the twenty posters shows a different set of loggerheads.  The point of the quiz is to remember where each set is actually located. (Clue: all the pictured sets of loggerheads are situated up on a public place somewhere within the town).

3.   Then, once you have identified the locations of the twenty sets of loggerheads, send your answers (numbered, of course) to the town council’s offices in St John’s Hill  – and, if your entry is correct, you go into a draw for a prize.  The deadline is August 31st.
(You don’t actually need the entry form, but if you want one, you can obtain one at the town council’s offices in St John’s Hill.) 

Sounds easy…   But...  Even for long-time loggerheads-spotters, this quiz is not as easy as you’d think!  
Loggerheads are strange in that you might see dozens of them every day as you walk around Shrewsbury, but you kinda forget about them after a while.  They are ‘hidden in plain sight’, to quote the phrase. 
So I found I really had to rack my brains to remember where each of the twenty loggerheads is actually to be found in the town.
It’s a loggerheads challenge!

A new book has now 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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Up to date street sign

 

In a previous post we noted that nearly all of Shrewsbury’s street signs are out of date, as they show the badges of the old Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, which came to an end with local government changes in 2009. Shrewsbury then went its separate way from Atcham - and Shrewsbury Town Council was formed… with a revised badge.

Slowly, very slowly, the street name-plates are being replaced; to have the town’s own, new badge.  The designs of these newer loggerheads are more leopard-like than the old shaggy loggerheads of the S&Atcham days.

If you’re wondering what the red mark is where the mouth is, it’s a much-reduced version of the heraldic red-tongue.

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