A latter-day mason's mark?

Mountford Carriage Works

The puzzle in this photo is: when were these loggerheads put up?   

This is the early nineteenth-century building, in Dogpole in central Shrewsbury, which is still known as the Mountford Carriage Works, even though Mountford & Company had left by 1916.  (Edward Burd, the owner of next-door Newport House, seems to have disliked the noise the works made, and forced them out).

In 1917, the new owners of Newport House were the local Borough Council (who then resurrected the house’s old title - The Guildhall) and then (in the 1940s?) took over this adjacent former carriage works building.
Did they put up the loggerheads as a 'proprietorial' sign at this time?
The second theory is that the Dogpole roadway was widened outside Newport House, some time, by the borough’s engineers - who put up the loggerheads as a sign of their work - a kind of latter-day mason’s mark.

However, I’ve never found proof of either theory.  Does anyone have thoughts to add?

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Anonymous planter

 Planter at St Julian's Church, Shrewsbury
You'll see a number of lead planters/troughs around Shrewsbury, some of which go back 250 years (see Shrewsbury Library planter for example).  However, the story of this one is not clear.  It bears the loggerheads and sits on the wall outside St Julian's Church, but otherwise it's rather anonymous.
Can anyone help us by giving us any clues to its story?  

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Visitors' loss

 Shrewsbury Bus Station
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

 The Old Bank Buildings in Shrewsbury
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

 Corner-detail of the St Benedict Window in Shrewsbury Abbey
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

Road sign showing arms of Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council

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

 Former cabmen’s shelter at Shrewsbury Castle
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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