Ordinary (heraldry) - Ordinaries

Ordinaries

Ordinaries (sometimes called "honourable ordinaries") resemble partitions of the field, but are formally considered objects on the field. Though there is some debate as to exactly which geometrical charges—with straight edges and running from edge to edge of the shield—constitute ordinaries, certain ones are agreed on by everyone. Except for the chief they are central to the shield.

• Cross: vertical/horizontal cross +, as in the arms of the City of London.

• Pale: a vertical stripe right down the middle of the shield.
  • A variant is the Canadian pale, invented in 1964 for the new Canadian national flag: it takes up half the width of the field.

• Fess: a horizontal stripe, as in the coat of arms of Austria.
  • Bar: a narrower fess (said in theory to occupy one-fifth of the field), sometimes reckoned as an ordinary in its own right. It is rarely borne singly.
  • In vexillology, a fess significantly wider than one-third of the height of the field is called a Spanish fess, after its use in the flag of Spain. The coat of the City of Burnaby, British Columbia, contains a Canadian fess, which is exactly the same as the Spanish one.
• Bend: an oblique band from the dexter chief (the bearer's upper right, viewer's upper left) to the opposite corner, as in the arms of the former grand duchy of Baden.

• Chevron: like the beams of a gable; as in the arms of Trans, Switzerland

• Saltire or St Andrew's cross: diagonal cross × as in the Scots national banner (often referred to simply as 'the Saltire').

• Chief: horizontal band right across the top of the shield, as in the arms of the district of Lausanne (Vaud, Switzerland).

The following are sometimes classed as ordinaries, sometimes as subordinaries (see below):

• Bordure: the boundary of the shield; often used for cadency.

• Pile: downward pointing triangle, issuing from the top of the shield .

• Pall or Pairle: a Y-shape.
  • A variant is the shakefork: a pall cut short of the margins, with pointed ends. It is frequent in Scotland, owing to its prominence in the armory of Clan Cunningham.

• a bordure—

• a pile—

• a pairle or pall—

• a shakefork—