Reference
DCN/Pub2/2
Title
The Arms and Seals of the Borough of North Bedfordshire.
Date free text
1978
Production date
From: 1430 To: 1978
Scope and Content
The text is updated from earlier publications on the same subject (see BorBA2/7).
Describes and illustrates the ancient arms of the town and borough and those confirmed in 1566.
Illustrates the common seal of the town of Bedford, which has been in use since c. 1430.
A Royal Warrant granted on the petition of Thomas Robert Donnelly, then Mayor of the Borough of Bedford in 1977 authorised the Earl Marshall to grant to the Borough Council licence to use the two coats of arms. The design of the eagle and castle was redrawn at that time (see front cover).
Illustration of the mayor's seal, which shows two wyvern-like monsters, in use from about 1348.
New seals were ordered in 1836 designed by Benjamin Wyon, medallist to the King and Chief Engraver of his Majesty's Seals. A lever press seal was provided in 1898 and a rubber stamp for the mayor's seal in 1856. New seals were presented by Alderman Gilbert Henry Barford in 1923.
'Conjectures about the symbolic meaning of heraldic charges are mostly fanciful; yet their use must imply a reason, if it could be recovered. The last male of the Beauchamps of Bedford, who held the barony, was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and is said to have borne a shield with an eagle, unlike the rest of his family. Since the barony then fell into abeyance, the town may have adopted the eagle to remind themselves that they had no overlord. The very ancient design of the first coat of arms may have been used on a banner, being intended to suggest a town divided north and south by the highway, east and west by the river.'
A version of the second coat of arms was made in 1963 at the College of Arms 'in greatly improved syle', both shields are without crest, motto and supporters.
Level of description
item