County Borough of Bolton - Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms

A coat of arms was associated with the town prior to the borough's incorporation. This consisted of a shield bearing two bendlets or diagonal bands, variously depicted as gold on red or black on gold. The crest above the shield was an elephant bearing a castle on its back. In 1890 Major Otley Parry redesigned the arms for the borough, the new design being officially granted by letters patent from the College of Arms on June 5. The blazon of the arms was as follows:

Gules two bendlets or a shuttle with weft pendent between an arrow point upwards and a mule spinning spindle in chief palewise all of the last and an escutcheon in base of the second thereon a rose of the first barbed and seeded proper, and for a Crest: Upon a rocky moor an elephant statant proper on its back a castle Or and thereon a rose as in the Arms the trapping per pale gules and vert and charged with a mitre also Or.

The bendlets do not seem to have had any particular significance: the corporation claimed that they represented a "soldier's belt". This was a common explanation for the heraldic symbol at the time. A number of symbols were added to the arms. In the upper part of the shield was an arrow, recalling that archers from Bolton played a part at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513. Next to this were two symbols of the cotton industry: a spindle from Samuel Crompton's spinning mule and a weaver's shuttle. In the lower section of the shield was a gold escutcheon bearing the red rose of Lancaster, denoting that the town was in Lancashire.

The elephant and castle crest of the unofficial arms was retained. The elephant was believed to have been derived from the arms of the City of Coventry, and the green and red colouring of the trappings was taken from the city's arms. The presence of the elephant was explained by the fact that Bolton anciently lay within the Diocese of Mercia, the see of which was at Coventry. The gold mitre in the crest referred to the diocese. The elephant stood on a representation of a "rocky moor": a depiction of the town's old name of Bolton-le-Moors.

In 1958 the corporation received a further grant of supporters and heraldic badge. The additions to the arms were blazoned as follows:

Supporters: On either side a lion sable gorged with a wreath argent and sable each supporting a staff Or flying therefrom a banner that on the dexter vair Or and gules that on the sinister argent on a bend azure three stags' heads caboshed Or; Badge or Device: Upon an oval gules encompassed by a garland of six roses also gules barbed seeded and leaved proper an arrow point upwards enfiled by a crown palisado Or.

The black lions came from the arms of Flanders, in recognition of the fact that Flemish immigrants founded Bolton's textile industry. They supported flags bearing the arms of the two families who held the Earldom of Derby and principal manors of Bolton: the Ferrers and Stanley families.

The motto adopted was Supera Moras or "Overcome Delays". It was a pun on the Latin name of the town: "Bolton-super-Moras".