Malevolent ones

 

 
Continuing on the theme of modern interpretations of the loggerheads, here we have the loggerheads of the Shropshire Football Association's logo.  Unlike the cheerful ones designed for Coleham School (as in the last post), they are distinctly more menacing, with a look of almost malevolent glee.  I knew a rather aggressive defender who used to look like that sometimes - perhaps the designer had him in mind(!).

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Cheerful loggerheads at school

 
In our last post, we looked at the 150 year-old carved loggerheads on the exterior of Coleham School in Shrewsbury.  
What’s interesting is to see how the loggerheads device keeps on being updated.
In this instance, the design in the photo above is the current Coleham School version, which can be seen on the school’s current signs and its pupils’ jumpers.  The traditional blue & amber colouring has been retained, though the lolling tongues are gone. 
The faces on the new design are however noticeably more cheerful than those of a hundred years ago, though – one might observe – some of the old heraldic gravitas has gone.

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School's ornate pediment

 
They don't make 'em like this anymore!  This pediment over Coleham Primary School is as ornate as you can get. Not only is there this huge effort but miniature versions over three doors.
Shrewsbury & Atcham Council seemed to have had a determination around 1900 to really stamp a civic look (including its loggerheads device) on the town.
You can find the school easily, just five minutes walk from the town centre and over Greyfriars foot-bridge.

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William Clement - 'Mister Shrewsbury'

The monument to William James Clement, the radical Shrewsbury politician, show three shields of arms on it – those of the borough of Shrewsbury, those the Royal (Shrewsbury) Grammar School and those – presumably – of William Clement himself (see photo above). 

He was a ‘commoner’ so he must have applied for the set of arms, and chosen the elements within it... and he chose loggerheads – the icon of his home town.

Clement served on the town council for over 30 years, getting involved in fine tussles with the dominant Tory group, and also did a stint as an MP for the town.
Did he choose the loggerheads for his device as a sign of his native credentials, to spite his Tory opponents?  Well… maybe, who knows?
In fact, are these definitely his arms?

You can find the monument just by Greyfriars Bridge (north side). There is also a portrait of him in the town art gallery, though it is not always on show.

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Magnificent gates

 
You'll not come across gates looking like this very often!  This photo shows just one of the range of gates, put up in 1885, at the roadside entrances to Shrewsbury's Quarry Park.
The grounds of the park, which run alongside the river at the other end, were donated to Shrewsbury Corporation in order to make a public park.  The gates were a gift of the Shropshire Horticultural Society, although they show a Shrewsbury loggerheads device rather than a Shropshire loggerheads device.
In full sunshine, they are a pretty magnificent sight in their blue & gold colours.

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Civic pride loggerheads

 When one first sees the 1A Castle Gates building in Shrewsbury, it looks yet another great example of the town's ‘black & white’ Tudor buildings. In fact, although very attractive, it’s deceptive, as it was actually built in 1902, probably as a shop.

On the bottom corners of the third storey, it has two tiny heraldic shields, as you can see in the photo – with loggerheads on the left, the Cross of St George on the right. Another example of civic pride no doubt.

However, I have still yet to find out who built 1A Castle Gates, and what exactly its first use was.  Can anyone help? 

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A latter-day mason's mark?

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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