In Memoriam

In memory of my father who passed away at the age of 90 on Tuesday 29th August. His life was all that he could have wished and he died a contented man.

Set Your Mind Free



Have you ever set your mind free?

To wander down Memory Lane?

To linger at every Milestone

to savour this wonderful game?



How far back do you want to go?

It’s really up to you.

You can leave out all your troubles

or just leave in a few.



What about the times you “nearly”?

Perhaps you’d better leave those.

Just put on the pink spectacles

that smell of the fragrant rose.



Can you go back to the Twenties

when Al Jolson sang Sonny Boy

in the very first of the talkies

that gave such wonder and joy?



Perhaps the hungry Thirties

when unemployment stalked the land

and when discipline at school

was the cane across the hand?



Then from ’39 to ‘45

when Britain fought for its life

those dark heartbreak years

of tragedy, grief, and strife.



Those dreamy early Fifties

with rationing still in force

when a really tasty meal

was that laced with H.P. Sauce.



And then the late Fifties

at last climbing the hole

enter a new phenomenon

in the shape of “Rock and Roll”.



Did the Sixties get a bit better?

You may even have managed a car.

Or did you join the Hippy trail

to strum on an old guitar?



The Seventies and Eighties

they just came and went

as you pressed your nose to the grindstone

to pay your mortgage or your rent.



And so into the Nineties

did you think you could relax?

BUT! Governments liked your money

so you had to run to pay the Tax.



Then into the new Millennium

can you now take a well-earned rest?

And think back to all those years

and know you’ve passed the test.



Now into the present day

are your memories still intact?

Hold on to them very tightly

so nothing can detract.



But I must offer some caution

be aware of the tempting rose

for your conscience will be waiting

your meanderings to expose.



Derrick Goldstraw

Sir John Booth, Knight, 1678.

Sir John Booth, Knight, 1678.

Arms: Quarterly of 6: 1 and 6, Argent, three boars' heads erect and erased Sable; 2, Argent, a fesse engrailed Gules. 3, Azure, two bars Argent in chief as many mullets of the second. 4, Bendy of ten Or and [Azure]; 5, Argent, a mullet Sable. Over all a crescent for difference Gules.

Crest: A lion passant Argent.

http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/funeral-certificates/certificates-3.html

Mrs. Alice Birkenhead, 1632.

The arms of Mrs. Alice Birkenhead, 1632. as recorded in the site dedicated to the blazons recorded in the Cheshire and Lancashire Funeral Certificates book.

Arms:(in a lozenge*) Quarterly of 15: 1 and 15, Argent, three chevronels Gules between as many martlets Sable, a crescent for difference; 2, Argent, a chevron Sable between three pellets; 3, Azure, a chevron between three garbs Or; 4, Gules, a crescent Or between three cinquefoils Argent; 5, Argent, a chevron Purpure between three leopards' faces Sable; 6, Argent, a bend engrailed Sable, in sinister chief an escallop Gules; 7, Azure, a cross couped the ends flory Argent between four martlets; 8, Argent, a lion rampant Purpure; 9, Argent, a cross raguly Gules; 10, Argent, two bars Gules in chief three mullets of the second; 11, Azure, a chevron between three covered cups Or; 12, Sable, three shacklebolts Argent; 13, Vert, three buglehorns Argent stringed Or; 14, Azure, a lion rampant Argent.

N.B. These are the arms of Singleton. Mrs. Birkenhead was the daughter of John Singleton of Stenninge, Lancashire.
No tincture is stated for the martlets in quarter 7. M.G.

* Note dated 3rd August 2017: The more I play with sketches of these arms, the more I find that the concept of them on a lozenge is silly and utterly impractical. I have no idea whether they were ever actually painted in such a way or whether this is simply a paper record of the blazon that someone, without giving the matter a great deal of thought, decided should be on a lozenge to represent a lady. A simple sketch of the 1,2,3,3,3,2,1 layout with the fields tinctured appropriately looks like a brick wall covered in graffiti. Begin to add charges and ordinaries and I quickly found that the oblong nature of most of the quarters which also have sloping sides makes the addition of ordinaries such as chevrons look horribly distorted and leaves little room for the charges (especially if they happen to be adjacent to one of the sloping sides). Lozenges are awkward enough for single shields, one of 15 quarters is, I have decided, utterly ridiculous. I shall note that the original (which has no image) states "on a lozenge" but I shall depict the image upon a shield.

National Archives - Representing Blackness

The National Archives presently has an exhibition titled "Representing Blackness" and one image which caught my eye was that of a pedigree of Sir Robert Troutbeck.

It's an interesting, if somewhat uncomfortable, insight into our history and well worth a visit:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/culture/representing.htm

The Visitations of 1533 to 1580 record the arms of Troutbeck as Azure, three trouts fretted in triangle Argent with two (alternative) crests: Crest 1 A Moor proper, wreathed around the loins and temples ...... holding in the dexter hand an arrow Or, barbed and flighted Argent, and in the sinister a round shield or target Gold. Crest 2 A Moor's head in profile proper on a wreath of four trout Argent.

In the Troutbeck Chapel of St. Mary's Church in Chester were (formerly) sumptuous monuments in memory of Sir William Troutbeck, who fought at the battle of Blore-Heath in 1549 and his son Sir Adam who died in 1512.

This image, showing the crest (simply described as  a head on a wreath of trout) is taken from a copy of Glover's Ordinary of Arms (1584); it does not appear to be that of a "Moor" ... or does it?

Knights in miniature

Knights in miniature.

I came across this little chappy while doing a routine Google search for anything that might catch my fancy relating to Cheshire Heraldry. He was on a Pinterest page by one Robert Hornsby (the arms were attributed to the Cheshire Heraldry site). I certainly admire the skills behind the creation of these fellows.

The arms are those of Zouch: Argent, two bars Azure on a chief on the second three leopards' heads caboshed of the first. As depicted in the Kindeton Roll of Daniel King.

http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/vale_royal/VRE29.html  (Scroll down to the bottom of the page).