You might have noticed over the past few weeks that we have updated our Council logo. The logo we are now using is based on our civic crest, originally granted in 1976. The crest reflects the wonderful history of our city and the towns which make up our district. The motto on the crest is ‘Progress, Industry, Humanity’, which still chimes well with our priorities today.
As well as the crest, we are using an updated colour scheme, with shades of green, blue, burnt orange and sand that all feature in the crest.
We have also designed a new simpler version of the crest, with fewer colours and less detail. We will use this in places where it is not possible to reproduce all the details on the full crest, or where the crest will be displayed very small. For example, we are using the simpler version as the icon used to identify Bradford Council on this blog.
The main Bradford Council website has been updated with the crest and new colour scheme. Some other online systems have also been changed. But some online systems will take longer as our web team will be working with various third parties to get our logo and colours updated. All in all, our web team has identified 120 online systems that need updating.
We are not replacing our logo everywhere at once, so you will still see the old blue and orange logo in some places for a while yet. But as we replace or refresh Council property and materials across the district we will now be using the civic crest.
Even while we used the blue and orange logo, the civic crest never dropped out of use, and was still shown in certain places. Using only the crest in future will give us a more consistent image and will better reflect the whole of the district and our rich history.
History and symbolism of the civic crest
The civic crest is based on our coat of arms, which was granted in 1976, but has origins as far back as 1847 and the original ‘Bradford shield’.
The crest features a shield supported by a stag and an angora goat, with a boar’s head at the top. The shield includes two bugle horns, a fleece, a fountain and eleven Yorkshire roses. Three more Yorkshire roses are set on each of the collars worn by the stag and the angora goat.
The various elements of the civic crest have links with different parts of the district and their own heritage.
The boar’s head represents the famous story of the wild boar of Cliffe Wood. The stag is derived from the heraldry of Denholme and Keighley.
Both the angora goat and the fleece in the shield are emblems of the local wool industry, with historical links with Baildon, Bingley, Silsden, Queensbury and Shelf. Bradford was at the heart of the wool industry at the height of its influence and power in the 19th century. The British Wool Marketing Board still has its headquarters in Bradford.
The stag and angora goat are standing on a green base which represents a stretch of the Yorkshire countryside with its hill and dales.
The heraldic fountain in the shield represents Keighley and Ilkley for their well-watered valley and wells. Two buglehorns refer to the historical annual custom of blowing the horn on St. Martin’s day in the Market Place at Bradford. The eleven white Yorkshire roses round the edge of the shield are a reference to the eleven smaller town councils which came together to form the Bradford district.
For anyone who enjoys colouring in, you might like to download our outline version of the crest for colouring, filled with a wealth of heraldic shapes and flourishes. We’d love to see your creations – tag us on Twitter or on Instagram. We are @bradfordmdc on both.
Bradford Council blog 