Chester Heraldry Tour

Arms in Chester
"Arms" are dotted all over Chester and the local gentry seem at one time to have quite obsessed with them, possibly as a status symbol for "noble" ancestry. Randle Holme made a reasonable living as a "Herald Painter" researching and depicting the coats of arms of the Cheshire gentry and several examples of his work can still be seen today. Ormerod's famous history of Cheshire is actually very much simply a list of notable ancestry and therefore was almost a guaranteed best seller when first published. A careful look above the door of the Cathedral reveals two almost identical coats of arms - one for the unfortunate Arthur Tudor and the other for his brother Henry VIII: the difference is tiny. Inside the Cathedral the cloister Stained Glass, although it dates from around 1930, contains a wealth of heraldic puns. Somewhat dubious Welsh coats of arms are plastered across the front of the Grosvenor Club near the Eastgate. Many pubs have a "sign" which while helping the illiterate find them also have armorial connections - in Castle Street there are (or were) at least three pubs associated with the Roman legionary eagle. The Suspension Bridge over the Dee has the arms of the Earls of Chester - not without some heraldic blunders. The Grosvenors got embroiled in a famous dispute over heraldry which led them to change their original coat of arms to the current wheatsheaf, and led to a curious incident involving a racehorse and even a Sherlock Holmes story. This article is a brief "tour" of "Heraldic Chester" and some of the often quite odd stories behind the "coats of arms" around the City. There is much more heraldry on show than discussed below, so this article may be updated from time to time.

"Coats of Arms"
In England, from the time of the Norman conquest, official documents had to be sealed. Beginning in the twelfth century, seals assumed a distinctly heraldic character; a number of seals dating from between 1135 and 1155 appear to show the adoption of heraldic devices in England. The earliest seals often show nothing other than a mounted figure of a armed warrior usually charging forward with a sword. The figure may be carrying a shield, but often only the inside of the shield is shown, possibly indicating that there is nothing special about the outside face of the shield.

Heraldic designs came into general use among European nobility in the 12th century. Systematic, heritable heraldry had developed by the beginning of the 13th century. It is often claimed that the use of helmets with face guards during this period made it difficult to recognize one's commanders in the field when large armies gathered together for extended periods, necessitating the development of heraldry as a symbolic language, but there is little support for this view. For example, the earlier heraldic writers attributed the lions of England to William the Conqueror (as shown on the lodge in Grosvenor Park), but the earliest evidence of the association of lions with the English crown is a seal bearing two lions "passant", used by the future King John during the lifetime of his father, Henry II, who died in 1189. Many historic illustrations show "knights" wearing arms at very early times, when many of these arms were retrospectively assigned or "attributed" to the characters in question. The medieval mind did not seem to countenance a time when things had been different. For medieval people the world had always been much the same as it was then. So it is that medieval art invariably shows biblical characters in medieval dress, living in medieval houses and carrying on medieval trades. Some of the arms that these characters are associated with are clearly unlikely with one medoieval illustrator showing John the Baptist bearing arms which depict his own severed head.

Heraldry developed a rather formal code for what was allowed on arms. There are five trditional colours (red, blue, green, black and purple) and two "metals" (gold and silver) as well as two "furs", patterns which represent ermine and squirrel. A colour cannot be put on a colour or a metal on a metal - so a silver star on black is allowable, but not a red star on black. The main symbols on the arms (such as one or more lions) are called "charges". Initially, under the English tradition coats of arms were personal, but could be inherited. An heir might use the same arms while the owner was still alive but the arms would then have a mark of difference. Other descendants could modify the arms to show the family relation, but again would introduce a difference. If two people with arms married then the combined arms would be used, leading to some quite complex patterns. There are examples of all these features in the tour.

Market Square
The "tour" starts at Chester Town Hall, which is frequently open to the public (but on occasion not). There are many "coats of arms" on display, both within and without. Several examples of the official Arms of Chester can be seen on the lamp-posts outside. These combine the wheatsheaves of some of the Earls of Chester and the royal lions of England on the two halves of the shield. One can take this as representing the aquisition of the Earldom of Chester by the crown in around 1237. The arms appear to date from shortly before 1580, but are not the original arms of the city. When they were formalised in 1580, Elizabethan warfare was moving from the longbow to the era of pike and musket and the military use of the shield was almost extinct.

The inside of the Town Hall features much of the civic heraldry that the Victorians were quite obsessed with. The main example being the Stained Glass on the staircase. The arms of most of the Earls is visible with the exception being Gherbod the Fleming, who may not have been an actual "Earl" and is the only one not carrying a shield. Hugh of Avranches has a shield wich is turned away from the viewer but in many other places around the city is depicted using a wolf as his symbol. The wolf also appears at the base of the window. Whether he used this in real-life is questionable as one can argue that "Hugh Lupus" ("Hugh the Wolf") was a pejorative nick-name given by the Welsh which refers either to his invasions of Wales or his gluttony. As noted above, heraldry on shields was not common in Hugh's time (there is very little in the Bayeux tapestry) and many of the arms depicted may have been "attributed" much later and would not be recognised by the supposed holders. In this case they might even be considered an insult. Richard of Avranches is depicted at the Town Hall with a red shield showing a wolf and decorated with crosses. This is again depicting arms which he is unlikely to have actually used, but does illustrate how early arms were personal, with sons often having related arms with differences.

It is worth inspecting the shields of Ranulf de Meschines and Ranulph De Gernon which are the next in the sequence at the Town Hall. These dispense with the wolf emblem and instead us a lion. Richard had died in the wreck of the White Ship and de Meschines was an indirect inheritor of his title. His correct coat of arms is a red lion on gold, and the Town Hall gets it right although it is wrong elsewhere, as will be encountered later in the tour. De Meschines was Viscount of Bayeux, which town frequently used a golden lion on red in its heraldry - this may reflect the Norman origins of the "English" lion, but also illustrates again how arms were personal. De Gernon (the son of de Meschines) has a silver lion on red and is often considered a "serial turncoat" due to changing sides several times during the war known as "The Anarchy". The term "Turncoat" dates from the 1550's and is believed to be related to changing one's allegiance by reference to a coat of arms displayed, although whether it involved turning an actual coat inside-out or simply wearing a different badge is unclear.

The next earl is Hugh de Kevelioc and he uses a completely different coat of arms to his father, marking the emergence of the wheatsheaves: in this case six of them. These "garbs" appear on many coats of arms associated with Cheshire and Chester and in many ways can be described as the county symbol. It is also found in the hallmark of the Chester mint, but also found in the arms of many towns and cities in the region. The origin of the "garbs" before de Kevelioc is uncertain and they may not even be wheat although they are typically gold they can also signify sheaves of rye, barley, oats or even flax.

Inspection of the city arms also reveals the presence of the ostrich feathers of the Prince of Wales, although strictly they are those of the heir apparent. They are partly disguised by being in the "mantling" - the "streamers" above the shield. They also appear in the arms of the County Palatine from 1531. Traditionally, after the royal aquisition of the county, the Prince of Wales was made Earl of Chester and thus the effective ruler of the Palatinate, which was not part of England and did not fall under English law, but was held as the personal fief of the monarch.

Co-op Bank

City Walls
Phoenix Tower

Cathedral

Suspension Bridge

Esatgate and Watergate
The Eastgate carries the coats of arms of the English Royalty and the three garbs of Ranulf de Blondeville on the supports for the clock. These are the two sets of arms which are combined in the Arms of Chester. Below this on the bridge itself the arms differ on the two sides. The outer arms are the single garb of the Grosvenors as Barons and the inner arms are the three garbs and sword which are the arms of the county of Cheshire. The sword and shield arms is the same as that known to have been used as the city arms of Chester at time, including in 1560. The arms of the Country arms were officially granted only on May 3, 1938, and so post-date the gate which was constructed in 1768-9. The Grosvenor Hotel, almost next to the Eastgate has the arms of the Duke of Westminster on the corner of it, featuring a pair of garbs and two portcullises. The portcullis was once an emblem of the House of Beaufort, and the first Tudor king, Henry VII, who was of matrilineal Beaufort descent, adapted both the portcullis and the Tudor rose as the Tudor badge. Although the Palace of Westminster served as the official royal residence for both Henry VII and Henry VIII until 1530, the current use of the portcullis as a symbol of the Palace and of Parliament does not date from that time. Rather, the symbol was developed as part of Sir Charles Barry's plans for the rebuilt Palace after the original burned down on 16 October 1834. The symbol was first used in the Dukes arms by the first Duke of Westminster (3 May 1880 – 9 June 1885). However the City of Westminster had a portcullis in its arms since Tudor times. The portcullis only appeared on the "Threepenny bit" in 1953.

The frontage of the Grosvenor Club contains a large number of coats of arms. In the lintel over the doorway in the entrance bay is a carving of the portcullis from the Grosvenor coat of arms. Above the door is a three-storey canted oriel window carried on corbels; between the corbels are two more coats of arms - the three sheaves as used by Ranulf de Blondeville which later became an emblem of Cheshire generally, and, the Arms of Chester city arms which combine the Royal arms of England - a red shield with three gold lions - and those of the earldom. Centrally between the middle and top-storey windows is the Grosvenors coat of arms. The most spectacular set of arms are those of historic counties of Wales in a strip above the ground floor windows. These are Glamorgan, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, Brecknockshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire, Caernarfonshire and Anglesey. Monmouthshire was at various times counted as an English county, although it is a member of the original 13. With a little effort it is possible to link each coat to one of the counties: the page on the Grosvenor Club attempts to decode them. Also on the frontage is the coat of arms of Owen Jones.

The former Martins Bank on the corner of St Werburgh Street has the bank's heraldic arms on it in two places. Tradition has it that Thomas Gresham, whose family crest included a grasshopper, founded what was to become Martin's bank in 1563, although he is believed to have used the sign of the Grasshopper on a goldsmiths shop in Lombard Street. According to ancient legend, the founder of the family, Roger de Gresham, was a foundling abandoned as a new-born baby among long grass in Norfolk during the 13th century and found there by a woman whose attention was drawn to the child by a grasshopper. Although a beautiful story, it is more likely that the grasshopper is simply a canting heraldic crest playing on the sound "grassh-" and "Gresh-". The "Liver Bird" element comes from merger with the Bank of Liverpool in 1918 to form The Bank of Liverpool and Martin's Limited. The title was shortened to Martins Bank Limited (without an apostrophe) in 1928.

On the other side of St Werburgh Street the Nat West Bank bears the "arms" of the bank. The logo, designed in 1968, three interlocking cubes which symbolised “three separate banks coming together under the brand” – originally National Provincial Bank, Westminster Bank and District Bank. The first "skyscraper" in the city of London was initially known as the National Westminster Tower. Seen from above, the shape of the tower resembles that of the NatWest logo (when interpreded as three chevrons in a hexagonal arrangement).

Further along the street are more wheatsheaves in the form of the arms of Roger de Lacy, as recorded by Matthew Paris in his Chronica Majora (before 1259). They are very high up and easy to miss.

St Peter at the High Cross contains an example of a heraldic funeral monument in what was once the vestry. As noted above, the family of Randle Holme found gainful employment in the organisation of funerals and the production of funerary hatchments or memorial boards. A funerary hatchment is a depiction, often within a black lozenge-shaped frame, generally on a black (sable) background, of a deceased's heraldic achievement, that is to say the escutcheon showing the arms, together with the crest and supporters of his family or person. The funerary hatchment was usually placed over the entrance door of the deceased's residence at the level of the second floor, and remained in situ for six to twelve months, after which it was removed to the parish church. The practice developed in the early 17th century from the custom of carrying a heraldic shield before the coffin of the deceased, then leaving it for display in the church. The example in the former vestry at St Peter shows the arms of two families: the Cowpers and the Thorpe/Thropp family. Both families played significant parts in the history of Chester. The Cowpers provided the Royalist mayor of Chester at the time of the Civil War. The Thorpe/Thropp family have a rather mysterious link to William Shakespeare, as Richard Thorpe/Thropp stationer, of Chester was a relative of the Thomas Thorpe who published Shakespeare's sonnets. As families married further additional arms would added as quarters and eighths.

There is much to see at Leche House in Watergate Street, but of heraldic interest is the coat of arms present as a plaster moulding on the chimney above the fireplace. Simpson descibes it as follows:


 * In the upper portion is a shield bearing the arms, and above, the crest of the Leche family of Carden, Cheshire, with a crescent on a crescent for difference; which in heraldic language are: Ermine, on a chief dancettee gules, three ducal coronets or, with a crescent for difference; that is to say, on a field of ermine is placed at the top a red band, the lower edge indented in a large and broad manner, on this three golden coronets, or crowns; in the centre of the field a crescent denoting that the arms are those of a second son. Crest: on a wreath a cubit arm proper, the hand grasping a snake vert.

While snakes are often symbols of treachery, but in this case the symbol is associated with medicine. John Leche, was surgeon (i.e. "leech") to King Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377) who by patent (50 Edw. III.) was grantee of Castle Warin, and other lands. He appears to have continued as surgeon the Richard II

Ther is more heraldic symbolism on the frontage of Bishop Lloyd's House.

In 1935 an elaborate stained glass window was installed on the second floor at Stanley Palace. It depicts the Coat of Arms of James Stanley the 7th Earl of Derby, and quartered on it, the Arms of his wife, Charlotte de la Tremoille. Her father was Claude de La Trémoille. Her maternal grandparents were William I, Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon. The French motto is that of Knights of the Garter honi soit qui mal y ponse, 'Evil he who thinks ill of it'. 'The Eagle & Child,' which forms part of this Coat of Arms is associated with the unlikely legend that one member of the family was a foundling who was deposited by an eagle. The Stanley coat of arms contains three stags heads. This is an allusion to the fact that the Stanleys were at one time hereditary keepers of the Earl of Chester's hunting forests on the Wirral. James Stanley supported the king in the Civil War and took part in Prince Rupert's successful campaign in the north. He was with Charles II at the Battle of Worcester after which on 3 September 1651 he accompanied him to Boscobel House. While on his way north alone he was captured near Nantwich and was imprisoned at Chester Castle and tried by court-martial at Chester on 29 September. He was found guilty of treason under the terms of the Act of Parliament passed in the preceding month (which declared those who corresponded with Charles II guilty of treason), and he was condemned to death. His appeal to Parliament for pardon, although supported by Oliver Cromwell, was rejected. He endeavoured to escape from Chester Castle but was recaptured by Captain Hector Schofield. He was taken to Bolton for his execution, because of his part in the Bolton Massacre. He was beheaded on 15 October 1651 at the market cross in Churchgate, Bolton, near the Man and Scythe Inn, owned at the time by the Earl of Derby's family.

Related Pages

 * Arms of Chester;
 * Stained Glass;
 * Randle Holme;

Online

 * Heraldry in the Bayeux Tapestry;
 * Heraldry of Cheshire;
 * Heraldry of the World: Chester;