Visitors' loss

 
Oddly, now and again, you DON'T find loggerheads when you really would have expected them.  Shrewsbury Bus Station is a building that is dreary beyond belief, so it would be enhanced by a set of loggerheads - but not one is in evidence.
Also, you'd have thought that a loggerheads would be prominently displayed anyway, just as an identifying form of welcome for arriving visitors.  But no.

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Leaving his mark

 
One of the least noticed loggerheads-sets is this one, which is in the apex of The Old Bank Buildings in Shrewsbury's Barker Street. They were probably erected in the 1930s when Arthur Ward, the Borough Surveyor, drove through the plans to widen the road at this point, resulting in new frontages. 

You could call them 'post Arts & Crafts' in style if you wanted to.  (Ward was no philistine, so he ensured the new-build was sensitive).
Ward was also very proud of the town, so (it's thought) he liked to leave a set of loggerheads here and there!

(Credit for the information for this post to: Phil Scoggins' article in the Civic Society's Newsletter of March 2020)

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Freemen loggerheads

 
This corner-detail of a lovely piece of modern stained-glass (the St Benedict Window) in Shrewsbury Abbey reminds us that the sponsors of the window were The Gild (sic) of Freemen of Shrewsbury.  As you'd expect, their badge carries the loggerheads.

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Antique road sign - with odd yellows

It seems rather bizarre to realise that this shiny road sign in Shrewsbury is already an antique.  Like thousands of others in the area, it shows the arms of Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council - which no longer exists. It was abolished in 2009, and its powers were split between Shropshire County and the new Shrewsbury Town Council.  People mistakenly believe that the bridge in the picture is one of Shrewsbury's bridges, but, no, it's Atcham Bridge.

Of course, it would cost a fortune to replace all the road signs, so they will stay up until they decay, one supposes.

By the way, I have never been able to work out if the yellow markings are just a case of poor, misaligned printing or a deliberate attempt at a 'modern design' in scrolling.  Does anyone know?

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Cabbies' shelter

 
This quaint little structure, just inside the gates of Shrewsbury Castle, is in fact a former cabmen’s shelter/rank. It once stood in the town's Market Square, just a couple of hundred yards away – where it had provided a place out of the rain for cabbies as far back as horse-drawn times.

The roundel in the top window shows the arms of Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, which existed from 1974 to 2009. As the shelter is much older than 1974, one wonders why this badge was installed...
Also... does anyone know exactly how old the shelter is?

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Loggerhead banking

 
Bridgnorth, in south-east Shropshire, has few loggerheads that we could find, but this one is prominent and central. It’s on the frontage of 21 High Street, the site of the old National Provincial Bank building (1905), which is now owned by Nat West.
Presumably, banks wanted to display loggerheads as a sign of their commitment to the locality.

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HMS Shropshire and Atcham

 

This plaque, now on display in Shrewsbury Castle Military Museum, was a gift from The Admiralty to Atcham Rural Council in 1943.  Atcham is a village in Shropshire not far from Shrewsbury.
The council was one of those to ‘adopt’ a ship during the Second World War: adoption meant a number of things, from knitting socks for the sailors to financial aid.  Curiously, it must have been very soon after this presentation (perhaps?) that HMS Shropshire was gifted to the Royal Australian Navy, as it was in late 1943.

Interestingly, this is another example of a single loggerhead; and another instance of the tongue being depicted in a 'disc', not lolling, shape. The shape - presumably - is a protruding tongue which is then folded over.  Is that right? Does anyone know the true interpretation?

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