On the 10th and 12th May, Stirling Archives hosted coat of arms workshops as part of the ‘Off the Page’ festival. The workshops were held at Bannockburn Library and Bridge of Allan Library and run with the libraries ‘Chatterbook’ groups.
The aim of the workshops was to get the groups to design their own coat of arms based on the examples held within Stirling Archives. A great example was the coat of arms for the former Central Regional Council and Stirling Council.
The session began with group asked to identify what a coat of arms might contain and what the different symbols, animals and mottos might represent. In order to explore this further, the group played a game!
The aim of the game was simple. Various words were spread out across a table. The group were then given cards with different animals, symbols and colours on them. They then had to place their card on the word they thought it might represent! For example, a dragon was placed next to the word “bravery”, a book was placed next to the word “wisdom” and the colour gold placed next to the word “kind”.
After completing the game, the group were then challenged to design their own coat of arms…with some rules attached! Their coat of arms had to include:
- Something they were good at
- An animal which represents you
- A motto of three words
Both groups to challenge to heart and created some fantastic coat of arms. Below are some their creations!
