Odd use of the Shrewsbury Great Seal

 

Here’s an odd thing.  We came across this sticker recently, attached to a lamppost in a part of Shrewsbury called The Dana.
What’s odd about it is that, for its central picture, it uses an image of the 600 year-old Great Seal of Shrewsbury.  (On the image of the seal you can just about see some loggerheads, which appeared in history for the first time on this seal).

But… what does it all mean?  The motto has nothing to do with the ancient seal and has, presumably, been written by a modern citizen of the town.  It reads: “One Hand Clapping all things in common all people one”.  But who ‘One Hand Clapping’ is, no one seems to know.

What OHC may have seized upon in using such an ancient image is that the seal was cut, back in 1425, to commemorate “the free commune of Shrewsbury”.  Perhaps OHC would like to see the free commune revived…?
It’s certainly wonderful to think that a dusty old historical artefact seems to have inspired a modern-day idealist…!

 

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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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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Smoking for loggerheads

 

In the old days when nearly everybody smoked, cigarette companies gave away a free card in each pack as a sort of extra incentive to get people to buy.  Depending on the promotion at the time, these might be cards of famous footballers or international flags or Kings & Queens and so on; and there were usually about twenty to be collected. 

This is a photo of such a card.  Perhaps Wills had put together a collection of 'shields of arms of local authorities' (?). It doesn't sound the most exciting promotion though....

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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The Beast at Shrewsbury Archives

 

The poster advertising a talk at Shrewsbury Archives features this single-loggerhead. By definition, loggerheads come in threes, but single-loggerheads do appear now & again. 

The featured image is a photo of the wonderful metal carving on the main door at the Shrewsbury Archives building. It's a fine piece of art.  (Does anyone know who created it?)

The talk, on May 29th at 2pm, is actually about how to research obscure subjects, such as the loggerheads, at the Archives.

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Loggerheads far from home

 

This set of loggerheads is actually in a stained glass window in Oxton Catholic Church in Merseyside, so you might reckon at first that they are a little lost.  However, in this instance, the loggerheads still signify a Shrewsbury connection.
First, Oxton is in the Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury, even though it is a good few miles from the actual town of Shrewsbury.
Secondly, the main body of the window (which is a really lovely work of art) depicts Saint Winefride, who is the patron saint of Shrewsbury, even though she lived in North Wales.

The window was created by a Shrewsbury woman, Margaret Agnes Rope, in 1929 and is one of a number of windows by her in this small church.  All her windows here are sublime and well worth the effort to go and see them if you can. 

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Collectors of loggerheads

 
It had been hoped to have a Loggerheads 600th exhibition this year to mark the emblem's anniversary.  It would have been a 'people's exhibition' in that, alongside the historic artefacts, there would have been items temporarily loaned by local people.  However, it was not be.

Many local people's loans would presumably have been one such as this souvenir spoon, now quite rare, which would have been sold as a takeaway item at Shrewsbury Castle.  The enthusiast who now has it says that loggerheads-collecting is his passion, and he has many more items. 

(Image: copyright I Pritchard)

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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Dod's fleur-de-lys arms

 

As a mark of respect to those local philanthropists who sustained and maintained hospitals before the days of the NHS, their coats of arms can still be seen, framed and honoured, on some of the corridors in the present-day Shrewsbury Hospital.

The arms of JW Dod are interesting in that they incorporate what look very much like Shrewsbury loggerheads. They are in the right configuration and have yellow and blue colouring in the design, though, admittedly, the leopards' faces are monochrome or silver, not gold.
What's more, Dod has added some fleur-de-lys.

John Whitehall Dodd himself was a leading Shropshire landowner and served as the MP for North Shropshire for ten years. He also built St. Bartholomew's Church in nearby Prees.

It was not unknown for an individual to apply for loggerheads to be added to his/her arms - but it was unusual.  So - one might say -, the leopards' faces possibly represent something else, perhaps a family connection.  It's frustrating not to know though.  Can anyone shed some light on this?

A new book has now been published to celebrate 600 years of the loggerheads - click here to find out more.

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