The 15th Baron Dudley

For the first time in ages I have had some time to "play" and today, being Easter Bank Holiday Monday, having caught up on those outstanding gardening jobs, I hid myself away for the afternoon and completed a project I have had on my desk for some time; the arms of The 15th Baron Dudley (Jim Anthony Hill Wallace) [The Rt Hon The Lord Dudley].

I was asked to provide a new image of the arms for the online Burke's Peerage & Baronetage because the one at present used is that of the late Baroness, mother of the present holder of the title. Lord Dudley has his father's arms and has brought in those of his mother's family in the scheme of quarterings which has been approved by Garter. The image for Burke's will be in grayscale but for the purposes of my weblog I have illustrated the arms in glorious colour.



Arms: Quarterly of six:
1st, Gules, semy of fleurs-de-lys Or a lion rampant Argent within a bordure company Azure and Argent (for WALLACE);
2nd, Azure, two bars nebuly Argent each charged with as many crescents Sable, a chief Or issuant therefrom a demi-lion of the third  (for DUDLEY);
3rd, Azure, two bars wavy Ermine a chief Or issuant therefrom a demi-lion Sable (for SMITH);
4th, Argent, on a pale between two leopards' faces Sable three crescents Or (for LEA);
5th, Chequy Or and Azure a bend Ermine (for WARD);
6th, Or a lion rampant Vert double queued (for SUTTON).

Crest: On a wreath Argent and Gules issuing from her nest a pelican in her piety wings inverted proper all within a laurel wreath Vert.

Supporters: Two lions rampant double-queued Vert, armed and langued Gules, ducally gorged and lined Or. Motto: Dieu Donne ('The Lord giveth'). Creation: B. (E) 15 Feb 1439/40.

Hark the Herald.

It has come to my ears, through a very reliable source, that Alastair Bruce of Crionaich, Fitzalan Extraordinary, etc, is contesting the Garter appointment. It had been thought that Norroy and Ulster would have a clear run but this does not appear to be so.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 

I've bin an' Done it.

In the process of re-jigging the images of the Visitations I found that I had inadvertently missed two of the blazons for Done of Utkinton. I've now added these images to the site and it has sparked a long dormant interest in the insignia of office of the Foresters of Delamere, the "Delamere Horn". This important piece of regalia possibly originates from the 12th century but it has later additions. The Chief Foresters of Delamere covered an area encompassing most of central Cheshire. The horn was handed down through the Done family and its descendants as hereditary Chief Foresters and it is now part of a collection in the Grosvenor Museum in the city of Chester.

Above is the image which, although now updated, was already on the web site. Below is the one I inadvertently missed!

It is quite plain to see that to all intents and purposes they tell the same story.

Also missed was a black and white image of a shield with crest and supporters and I have made a colour illustration:

http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/visitations/CV9.html

Pseudo heraldry for a new beginning.

Some time ago I reported my sadness at the likely consignment of the arms of Cheshire County Council to the dustbin of history following the demise of that authority which is due to take place at the end of this financial year. It was both a rant and a plea; it comes as no surprise that neither the rant nor the plea had any effect.

On the first of April the two new unitary authorities come into their own; both have been busy in their preparation and, as you would expect, their efforts to impress the world with some form of corporate identity has not escaped my attention.

It seems that both soon to be authorities chose what they considered to be the most economic route to a corporate identity and, probably motivated by a need to ensure that there were no accusations of throwing away yet more taxpayers money, avoided all association with those dreaded, and expensive, “design agencies”. 

Cheshire East, the new authority that replaces the County Council and the Boroughs of Crewe & Nantwich, Congleton and Macclesfield decided to remain “in house” and used its own design team to whittle suggestions down to three options before going out to public consultation. Finally unveiled on the 16th September 2008 their new logo has little to interest the reader of this web log but its owners feel that it is a “fantastic design” with a “professional, clean and smart” look. At least it is honest in that it is simply a logo and makes no pretence to heraldry (which is more than can be said of its new sister authority!).


I have no doubt that somewhere in the documents which sold the concept of unitary authorities to the powers that be there will be mention of fiscal savings. It is interesting to note that a budget of £250’000 has now been set aside by Cheshire East Council to roll out the new logo across over 200 buildings , 160 play areas and 400 vehicles.

Whilst the new Cheshire East logo has no pretensions to grandeur and thus can be treated as being an honest attempt at branding, the same can not be said of the device adopted by the council set to replace the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston, Vale Royal and Chester District. The new Cheshire West and Chester Council also chose to eschewed any contracts with those dreaded “design agencies” but took an altogether different route and turned the design process into a competition with a prize of £500 to the winner.   After a short list of four was presented to the public for their final consultation, some of which, resembled building society fascias, the newly adopted device for Cheshire West and Cheshire Council was announced on the same day as the one for the other new Cheshire authority.

The logo, designed by City Council employee Chris Hughes, is said to represent the new authority as being “dynamic, forward thinking, inspiring and professional, fresh and innovative”. That it may be - but for me, it simply pretends to be something it isn’t; just like the previous logo of the soon to be extinct Cheshire County Council did.



I dislike the pretence that is heraldic. Its designer stated that in creating the logo he tried to illustrate the importance of the established icons of the councils that will form Cheshire West and Chester as well as convey a new unity and that all the elements of the logo have a relevance to Cheshire West and Chester.

“The lion is a common symbol in Cheshire, stemming from the mid 1500s and the wheat sheaf motif is carried on the crests of the councils that will form Cheshire West and Chester.”

I will ignore the common misconception that a shield is a crest (groan) and simply point out that the designer has taken elements from historical Cheshire heraldry, thus subconsciously recognising that heraldry has and does play an important part in the identity of Cheshire, and yet has not had the courage to suggest that these elements should be given life in the form of Letters Patent from Her Majesty's Officers of Arms. The new authority can not be congratulated on adopting something which, as a design, purports to be representing the heraldic tradition of a proud county and yet which is not a coat of arms and does not have the authenticity of a grant of arms. What can not be avoided is that it pretends to be a coat of arms but it is not. That is a shame.

Wanted.

I would be grateful for information of the whereabouts of a copy of small booklet entitled The Heraldry of Cheshire by Harold Ellis Tomlinson, published in 1946 by Manchester University Press (Manchester); it was, I believe, reprinted from the "Bulletin of the John Rylands Library", vol. 30, no. 1, October, 1946.

Brereton of Malpas

I am plodding away at the revised images and have reached Brereton of Malpas.

Brereton of MalpasArms: Quarterly 1 and 4 Argent, two bars Sable, a crescent for difference Or.
2 and 3 Argent a chevron between three crescents Gules [Ipstones]

Crest: A Bear's head erased Sable, muzzled Gules. 

http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/visitations/CV4.html

The images shown on the website are smaller than those in the book.

A Derbyshire Armory

I hesitate to say that I have just finished reading because that would be inaccurate but I have just spent the best part of a fortnight pleasurably trawling through a superb and enviable record of Derbyshire arms compiled by Maxwell Craven. I thoroughly recommend it and quote below the information given on the book by The Derbyshire Records Society who published the book:

A Derbyshire Armory
 
Compiled by Maxwell Craven
Illustrated by Elizabeth Forrest

This book is the only comprehensive dictionary of Derbyshire coats of arms. It contains some 2,500 entries, arranged alphabetically by surname. In each case, the parishes within the county with which the family in associated are listed, followed by a descrip­tion of their arms and an outline of their family's history. For many families, several variant coats are described. For every entry, references to sources are given. A representative sample of eighty coats of arms are illustrated in the text with specially prepared line drawings. An exceptionally comprehensive index of place names completes the volume.

ISBN: 0 946324 13 1
xxiii + 205 pages, 80 line drawings
£20.00 (members £10)

I'm not a member of the Derbyshire Records Society so I enquired as to availability from some of my other sources and managed to obtain a new copy for a lot less than the records society was asking from none members. I've used Chapel Books on a few occasions now for books and manuscripts and they always come up trumps.

The beauty of this book is not its illustrations, there are very few of them and they are in black and white, but in the scholarly research and accurate notation of source. I especially like the way in which it refers to a family as bearing an achievement where it has some official standing  whereas one without such authority is referred to as simply being used by the family. I hasten to add that, of course, the book is all about the arms used in an English county and such terms are probably best thought of as in an English environment.