Arms of West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council

The Coat of arms of

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

Metropolitan County Council was granted in 1975Letters patent dated August 22, 1975 to the new

Metropolitan county The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...

council created in the previous year. The County Council was abolished in 1986 under the provisions of the

Local Government Act 1985 The Local Government Act 1985 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Its main effect was to abolish the six county councils of the metropolitan counties that had been set up in 1974, 11 years earlier, by the Local Government Act 1972, ...

and consequently the arms are no longer used. The current

West Yorkshire Combined Authority The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is the combined authority for West Yorkshire in England. It was established by statutory instrument under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 on 1 April 2014. It is a s ...

uses a wordmark consisting of the authorities name.

Symbolism

* The

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

is divided into five parts which represents the five districts that form the county. These divisions form a letter 'W' which, when comprised with the white rose of Yorkshire, graphically represent the county's name. * The two lion

supporters In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the Escutcheon (heraldry), shield and depicted holding it up. Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. H ...

are taken from the

Coat of arms of England The royal arms of England are the arms first adopted in a fixed form at the start of the age of heraldry (circa 1200) as personal arms by the Plantagenet kings who ruled England from 1154. In the popular mind they have come to symbolise the n ...

. One supporter has an image of the sun while the other has a Yorkshire rose. These two symbols together formed part of the arms of the preceding council,

West Riding County Council West Riding County Council (WRCC) was the county council of the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974. The council met at County Hall, Wakefield, County Hall i ...

, as ''a Rose en Soleil''. * The

compartment Compartment may refer to: Biology * Compartment (anatomy), a space of connective tissue between muscles * Compartment (chemistry), in which different parts of the same protein serves different functions * Compartment (development), fields of cells ...

shows the hills of the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

which make up a large part of the western part of the county.

Blazon

The formal description of the arms, or

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

, is: ''For the arms: Or two Piles Azure a Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper; and for the crest: on a Wreath of the Colours a Mural Crown Or standing thereon a Lion rampant guardant per fess Gules and Tenne crowned Or bearing in its forepaws a Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper; and for the supporters: Dexter a Lion rampant guardant per fess Gules and Sable armed and langued Azure crowned and charged on the shoulder with a Sun in splendour Or sinister a Lion rampant guardant per fess Tenne and Vert armed and langued Gules crowned Or charged on the shoulder with a Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper, the whole upon a Compartment representing the Pennine Hills; and for the motto: 'By effort achieve'.''

References

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History of West Yorkshire