Coldstream

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COLDSTREAM

Incorporated into : 1975 Berwickshire (1996 Scottish Borders)

Burgh

Official blazon

Per pale Azure and Vert: a salmon hauriant Proper, issuing from its mouth a cross flory fitchee Or, between two mullets in chief Argent, the sun in his splendour of the Third and a rose Gules, barbed and seeded also of the Third, in the flanks, and in base two crescents of the Fourth.

Above the Shield is placed a coronet appropriate to a Burgh and in an Escrol below the Shield this Motto "Nulli Secundus".

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted on May 30, 1952.

Coldstream was created a Burgh of Barony in 1621 in favour of Sir John Hamilton of Trabroun.

The arms are based on the device on the Burgh seal which had been adapted from the seal of the Cistercian Abbey of Coldstream, founded by Cospatrick, Earl of Dunbar, in 1143.

The shield is parted blue, probably for the Abbey, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and green for the Earls of Home, Superiors of the Burgh. The stars and the crescent come from the Abbey seal as does the salmon with the cross in its mouth. The rose recalls the connection of the Dunbar family with the Burgh. The wheel-like device at this point on the monastic seal was thought by Lord Lyon Innes to be possibly a primitive version of the Dunbar rose.

The salmon also recalls the river Tweed, which passes through Coldstream, and its fine fish; the cross in its mouth is of the same pattern as that on the Crown of Scotland.

The Latin motto - "Second to None" - is that of the Coldstream Guards, which were originally embodied in the town; the Town Council, with the full agreement of the regiment, specially asked for it to be granted with the arms.

Seal of the burgh as used in the 1890s

Community Council

Official blazon

Per pale Azure and Vert, a salmon hauriant Proper, issuant from its mouth a cross flory fitchee Or, between two mullets in chief Argent, the sun in his splendour of the Third and a rose Gules, barbed and seeded also of the Third, in the flanks, and in base two crescents of the Fourth.

Above the Shield is placed a Coronet appropriate to a statutory Community Council, videlicet:- a circlet richly chased from which are issuant four thistle leaves (one and two halves visible) and four pine cones (two visible) Or, and in an Escrol below the same this Motto "Nulli Secundus".