The Stafford Coat of Arms are a relief shield.
The shield is charged with two Stafford Knots, a representation of a four towered castle and a lion. (
visit link)
The North Staffordshire Railway Company also made use of these arms in their badge.
The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire.
The company was based in Stoke-on-Trent and was nicknamed The Knotty; its lines were built to the standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1,435 mm). The main routes were constructed between 1846 and 1852 and ran from Macclesfield to Norton Bridge, just north of Stafford, and from Crewe to Egginton Junction, west of Derby. Wikipedia:
(
visit link)
Origin/meaning
These arms were recorded at the Visitation of 1614, certified circa 1953.
Stafford formerly had two castles, one belonging to the King, and the other to the Earls of Stafford. The royal castle, built by William the Conqueror, was held for the King by Robert de Stafford, ancestor of the first Earl of Stafford, who in 1348 built the second castle outside the town. Both castles no longer exist. The royal and feudal elements in Stafford's history a represented by the lion and Stafford knots. The arms carry on the motif of a thirteenth century seal bearing a castle between four lions. The Stafford Knot
The origin of the Stafford Knot is shrouded in the mists of antiquity, but it can be said that the somewhat barbaric tale of a certain sheriff who invented it to hang three criminals with one rope at the same time, may be dismissed as an effort of the imagination. The earliest authentic appearance of the Stafford Knot is on the seal in the British Museum, and this was the property of Joan, Lady of Wake, who died childless in 1443.
Her personal possessions passed to her nephew, Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, who adopted the Knot of Rope, henceforward to be known as the Stafford Knot, as his badge, probably just preceding his creation as Duke of Buckingham in 1444. That he did adopt it from his Aunt is undoubted and she, being a direct descendent of Hereward the Wake, may have had it handed down to her from past generations, through many unknown but doubtless - romantic circumstances.
The Duke of Buckingham and his descendants used this Stafford Knot as personal cognizance. It did not form part of their armorial bearings, which were personal to themselves, but it was their badge and they gave the knot of rope to their retainers and servants as a livery and means of recognition.
The townsmen of Stafford were leigemen of the Stafford family, and as such also used this badge. As the days of feudalism passed and individual and civic liberties grew, it was gradually adopted by the Citizens, Freemen and Burgesses until ultimately it was included in the borough coat of arms.
Source: (
visit link) (
visit link)