Shropshire

SHROPSHIRE

Shropshire was a county, and since 2009 also a Unitary Authority.
Additions : 2009 Bridgnorth, North Shropshire (1974 Market Drayton RDC (1966 Market Drayton UDC), North Shropshire RDC (1967 Ellesmere UDC, Ellesmere RDC, Wem UDC, Wem RDC, Whitchurch UDC), Oswestry, South Shropshire (1974 Clun and Bishop's Castle RDC, Ludlow RDC (1966 Ludlow Borough)), Shrewsbury and Atcham

Official blazon

Arms : Erminois, three pile azure, two issuant from the chief and one in base, each charged with a leopard's face Or.
Motto: 'Floreat Salopia'

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted on June 18, 1896 and continnued by the new authority in 2009.

The leopards' faces in these arms were adopted by the County Council in 1895 from the Borough of Shrewsbury (Azure, 3 leopards' faces Or). It is only in the incorporation of the ermine that the County arms differ from those of the Borough. The heads appear on the fifteen^th century seal of the Corporation but their origin is unknown. They may have been derived from the Royal Arms, or from the arms of De La Pole, Earls of Suffolk in the fourteen^th century (Azure, a chevron, and three leopards' faces Or), or arms of some local family.

The heads are often referred to as "the loggerheads". This originates presumably in the practice of carving some such motif on the head of the log used as a battering ram.

Floreat Salopia, the county's motto, means "May Shropshire flourish!" - Salop. is the standard abbreviation for Shropshire.

The grant of 1896

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