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Description: | Two narrow iron (steel?) uprights, square in section, painted black and joined by three short struts. These support the sign which has a square frame and two curlicue brackets, in black wrought iron. The posts stand on a small base and are supported by four diagonal struts ending in scrolls. A bronze plaque giving the story of the sign is sited at eye level on the post on the south side. The sign depicts the Bromley crest in red, white, blue and gold with a motto beneath. The crest is a quartered shield depicting clockwise from top left: crossed branches, a sun, the white horse of Kent and a scallop shell. Across the middle is a band with three birds in it. The shield is surmounted by a helmet, with a shell and two branches above (laurels or hops?), and two larger branches above that. There is elaborate iron scrolling on either side and the motto in a scroll beneath. Both sides of the shield are the same. It is in wood with the name Bromley in white plastic lettering. [see below] Additional Information: The rearing white horse is the traditional symbol of Kent. The horse faces to the left, and stands on its hind legs with the right leg extended forward and slightly raised. The two front legs are separated as if pawing the air, with the right one higher than the other. The horse is often accompanied by the motto 'Invicta', meaning 'unconquered', usually in a scroll beneath. The white horse is supposed to be the horse of Odin and to have first appeared on the banner of the Jutes when they invaded the Isle of Thanet. They were led by the semi-legendary Hengist who, with his brother Horsa and son Æsc, were supposedly the first Saxons to arrive in Britain, in the fifth century, and founded the kingdom of Kent. Another tradition has it that it represents the horse ridden by Hengist. The county of Kent always covered roughly the same area as the ancient bounds until the reorganisation of Greater London in 1965. Originally it extended as far as the Thames and even included North Woolwich on the other side of the river. In 1965 several metropolitan boroughs and UDCs in north west Kent were taken into the newly-created boroughs of Bexley and Bromley. Bexley, Sidcup, Erith and Crayford went to Bexley borough, and Bromley, Beckenham, Orpington, Chislehurst and Penge went to Bromley. The horse had featured in the coats of arms of the old local authorities and was likewise incorporated into the crests of the new London Boroughs to show the historic link with Kent It is widely used throughout these areas, with or without the motto, as a decorative and symbolic motif. | Subjects: | Village sign | Source: | Vads | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=6992... | Go to resource |
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