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.

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.

A demi-dragon, collared, holding a cross crosslet fitchee

This one has eluded me for years. It is a a crest featured above the front door of a house, on 30 Stockwell Street Leek, Staffordshire, opposite the old Cottage Hospital.

I visited Leek on Monday to take the photo and it looks to me to be a demi-dragon, collared, holding a cross crosslet fitchee. His wings appear to be charged with a number of smaller charges which I can’t make out. The Motto “Pro Cruce” is Latin and (roughly) translates as For the Cross. Any information gratefully appreciated. (I should say that although it looks as though it may be an original feature, there is always the possibility that it is a piece of architectural salvage added to the building at a later date in which case, it may have nothing to do with the history of the house itself!)

My first thought was that the motto could possibly be a pun on Crusso/Cruso, a notable local family, however, the only listed Crusso/Cruso coat of arms (Burke's General Armory) has a crest of a cross forme Or; there is no entry for Crusso/Cruso in the British Dictionary of Arms. 

Reading Blue Coat School has a similar crest (but not the same).