Talk - Suffolk Heraldry Society

 I shall be giving an online Zoom talk to members and friends of the Suffolk Heraldry Society on Thursday 18 February 2027 at 7.30pm.

I look forard to seeing you there.

New arms for a extinct family (attributed)

I am in the process of designing fictional arms for a 16th century family with the surname Tichnor from the fictional manor of Tichnor (the Tichnor surname is extinct in England). Needless to say, as I am fond of punning arms, puns feature heavily in the design. Design B has, possibly, the stronger pun but design A has its merits. 

Here are the two images and the explanation behind the puns is bellow.

Design B:

To play on "Touchnor" (soundalike: "Touch-no"), this design centres around the idea of avoiding contact or keeping a secure boundary. The Shield  is Vert (Green), symbolizing nature, growth, and the countryside but it is the main charge which provides the pun. The only charge on the shield is a Noli me tangere (Latin for "touch me not") flower, specifically, a stylized Touch-Me-Not (or Jewelweed) plant. This provides a direct, botanical pun on the name. The Border (bordure) counter-compony of Argent (Silver) and Sable (Black) signifies a boundary, wall, or barrier, enforcing the "nor/no" portion of the name by saying "stop, do not cross, don't touch me.

The crest of a porcupine visually enforces the concept of "do not touch."

The Latin motto Noli Tangere (often written as noli me tangere) literally means "do not touch me." or, "Touch not", a play on the name Touchnor.

Design A:

The same basis applies but here I have made the "barrier" a chevron per chevron counterchanged and the charges are thistles: A thistle is a prickly, wild herbaceous plant characterized by sharp, needle-like prickles or spines covering its leaves and stem. These sharp bits are a natural defence mechanism designed to protect the plant from being eaten by grazing animals. Thistles litterally say "Touch me not". or "Touch no". 

I shall mull it over.

 

Shropshire's Punning Heraldry - now available to purchase

The book is now available to pre-order (expected to be in stock within 10 days) at £40 plus shipping. 

A4 size (210 x 297 mm) Hard back and full colour.

Excluding the forword and index there are 138 pages and 184 colour images.

Shipping will be Tracked:

Book + UK £52

Book + Europe £60

Book + All Others £70

To purchase a copy, please contact me with your details (including address) at:

and I will send you a PayPal invoice.

For UK buyers only, once the book is in stock, I will be putting it on Ebay and sharing the link here.

Staffordshire's Punning Heraldry - Bagnall

 Bagnall

Arms: Per saltire Or and Ermine, a lion rampant Azure.*

Crest: An antelope sejant Argent ducally gorged Or.

There is a clever heraldic pun (known as canting arms) to be found in the crest of this achievement. The pun relies on a very rare, mythical heraldic beast known as the bagwyn. 

The blazon describes the crest as an antelope sejant. In traditional British heraldry, a bagwyn is an imaginary monster that looks almost exactly like a heraldic antelope. The primary distinction between the two is minimal, mostly involving the specific shape of the horns and the horse-like tail. Because they are so visually identical, armourists frequently substituted or conflated the two creatures. Bagwyn, is a direct phonetic pun on the surname Bagnall ("Bag-wyn" / "Bag-nall"). By placing an antelope in the crest, the designer created a visual nod to the bagwyn, cementing a classic medieval wordplay on the bearer's family name. 

*This blazon is possibly as the result of a transcription error. When the lineage was formally proven and confirmed by the Kings of Arms (including Robert Glover in 1583 and William Dugdale in 1663), the official, legally recognized grant for the Staffordshire Bagnalls was strictly maintained as the version with the two horizontal bars (Ermine, two bars Or...). The per saltire version exists as a recognized historical variant or transcription error specific to certain localized manuscript copies of those Visitation books. Whether we take this version as a transcription error or just a variant, both versions nevertheless have Ermine and Or.

Staffordshire's Punning Heraldry - Cunliffe

 Cunliffe

Arms:  Sable three conies courant Argent.

Crest: A greyhound sejant Argent collared Sable.

There is an excellent heraldic pun (known in heraldry as canting arms) to be found in this achievement. The pun operates on two clever levels, playing with both the sounds of the words and the interactions of the animals depicted. The core of the pun relies on the historical pronunciation of the word "Conies". The word Conies (the old English word for rabbits) was traditionally pronounced to rhyme with "honeys" or "monies" (with a short 'u' sound: /ˈkʌni/). 

"Cunliffe" (originally derived from the Lancashire location Cundeclif or Cumbecliue) starts with the exact same phonetic sound ("Cun-").  By placing three conies on the shield, the armiger was using visual wordplay to sound out the first syllable of the surname Cunliffe. 

The combination of the shield and the crest creates a lively, theatrical joke: On the shield, the conies are described as courant (running). Perched directly above them on the crest is a greyhound, a dog famously bred for coursing and hunting rabbits. The layout creates a perpetual visual gag: the greyhound sits atop the helmet eternally watching or waiting to chase the three rabbits running across the shield right below it.

The last commercial parchment and vellum maker

A notice from The Heraldry Society concerning William Cowley the UK's last commercial parchment and vellum maker.

Oops - they've done it again!

As an ex-Leekensian, I have a passing interest in matters Civic, especially so when it involves heraldry. 

The Government has just confirmed that two new councils will provide services for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the future. Two new unitary councils will replace the ten existing ones and cover:

• North Staffordshire - taking in Staffordshire Moorlands, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent

• Southern and Mid Staffordshire - taking in Stafford, East Staffordshire, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Tamworth

Under the Government’s timetable, the new councils are expected to be established in April 2028, with elections to shadow councils held in May 2027. 

How does this affect heraldry? 

Well, quite a lot because ten councils are affected; Staffordshire County Council, Staffordshire Moorlands, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, East Staffordshire, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, and Tamworth, are all armigerous Councils. All ten of them are about to be abolished and replaced by two new unitary authorities. 

Ten armorial achievements consigned to the bin of history.

You can see all of the arms on the excellent Civic Heraldry of England & Wales site.