Waggly footballing

 
This rather vibrantly-coloured set of loggerheads is representative of those that featured on the Shrewsbury Town Football Club badge for a century.  

The design and shape would alter down the years, but the loggerheads were a constant – except for one dark twelve-months. In a moment of great controversy, in the 2000s, the loggerheads were discarded by the club – but brought back after a ‘fans’ revolt’!

This 1970s version of the logo features particularly waggly, long tongues.

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Blue for Shropshire education

North Shropshire College is based on a campus just outside Oswestry, and is a shining example of modern educational achievement.

The badge is a twentieth-century mash-up of ancient influences.  
The ‘lion-passant’, most famous for its presence on the arms of England, was on the arms of the old Oswestry Town Council; the (single) loggerhead and fleur-de-lys come from the arms of Shropshire County; the blue colouring comes from the Shropshire County badge; while the wavy lines must represent the River Perry, surely?  (Does anyone know for sure?)

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Crash-barrier types!

This rather lonely bollard is to be found in the tiny St Alkmund's Square, an out of the way location in a back-street of Shrewsbury. It was probably placed in this odd position to stop carriages crashing into the corner of the house.

Embossed on the front of the bollard, facing the viewer, is a set of loggerheads (see right).
It's hard to see them clearly as they have been painted over in black, the same colour as the post itself.
They are probably civic loggerheads - i.e. placed on the structure to indicate that it was erected by the borough/town council.

Though there are many such posts in the town, there are very few such embossed posts. The only other ones I've found are in nearby St Mary's Court, but those are very worn.

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Monolithic

It is perhaps not surprising that the centrepiece of the new Shrewsbury Cemetery in the suburb of Emstrey (built in the late fifties) should be a monolith with a set of civic loggerheads on one side.  The piece was created for the millennium, in 2000.

However that does contrast with the fact that the old (19th century) Shrewsbury Cemetery, in Longden Road, has no loggerheads anywhere in it. Odd.

The three loggerheads look rather unhappy, don't they? They are also of the type that have the sharp (not rounded) ears.

On the obverse of this monolith is an pictorial impression of the town - with its three oldest extant churches (St Mary's, St Alkmund's and St Julian's) represented, along with the town walls.

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London loggerheads

 
This piece of stained glass, made by the famous firm of CE Kempe in 1920, clearly shows a loggerheads (on the left). They are even in the right colours - gold and blue.
BUT... they are in Southwark Cathedral in London, not Shropshire. 

The main part of the window is a tribute to the medieval poet John Gower, but these two lights are probably to do with the donors, the Winkey family.
Can anyone help explain the connection between some Shropshire loggerheads and the Winkeys?

For more on the Gower window, see: https://victorianweb.org/art/stainedglass/kempe/25.html

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Prince Rupert's glass

 

Some help please!  Of what organisation or family are these arms featuring loggerheads?

You’ll find these two windows in Church Street in Shrewsbury, an old cobbled street that links St Mary’s and St Alkmund’s churches. 
By coincidence, the windows face the old Loggerheads Public House, a hostelry that doesn’t seem to have changed much in its hundreds of years of existence.

The windows are in an equally ancient building, the Prince Rupert Hotel, so called because the king’s military commander – Prince Rupert – stayed there in the seventeenth century.
No one is suggesting the windows are that old, but it’s a nice connection.

The windows contain two shields with loggerheads in them: one is a set of three black-faced ones with a chevron device; the other a single one (with the more traditional gold face on a blue background) on a cross.

However – heraldry enthusiasts that I’ve spoken to don’t recognize the two shields here.
Clearly, the presence of loggerheads in them suggests Shrewsbury connections – but can anyone identify them?

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Oldest loggerheads

 
This may be the oldest full set of loggerheads (outside of seals or manuscripts) still in existence.  It was in Shrewsbury’s old Romaldesham Hall, which was demolished in 1760, so this set possibly dates back to the 17th century.
It now has pride of place in Shrewsbury Museum.

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