Shropshire
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Heraldry of the World Civic heraldry of the United Kingdom |
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SHROPSHIRE
Shropshire was a county, and since 2009 also a Unitary Authority.
Additions : 2009 Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, Oswestry, South Shropshire, 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 fifteenth 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 Suffork in the fourteenth 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.
Literature : Image and information provided by Laurence Jones.