Heritage of Loughborough University

 
In the days when knights wore armour, it was hard to tell one from another, so they had designs on their shields.

A complete collection of such designs was known as an achievement, and it is included: a shield (sometimes called a coat of arms because it was often shown on a surcoat, or mantle, worn over the armour to protect it from rain, and to shade the man from the sun); a crest; and a motto. Experts known as heralds were trained to identify fighting men by designs of this kind.

As time went by, towns, and groups of people in the same trade, could apply for arms. Loughborough did so when it became a borough in 1888, and the designs were based on those of three important families who had once owned the town. The lion comes from the Beaumont family crest, the bull's head and the sleeve from the Hastings crest, and the cockleshells and lace pattern from the Despenser crest.