Stowmarket

Heraldry of the World Civic heraldry of the United Kingdom

STOWMARKET

Incorporated into : 1974 Mid Suffolk

Official blazon

Arms : Or three Crowns Gules on a Chief Azure a Mitre Argent garnished Or.
Motto : 'SIT ANIMA MEA CUM CHRISTO' - May my Soul be with Christ.

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted in 1970 and transferred to the town council in 1975.

The three red crowns on gold are derived from the arms of the Abbot of St. Osyth in Essex. The significance of this is that the Town and Manor of Stowmarket, with the royalties and the church living, were held by the Augustine Abbey of St. Osyth from 1348 until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. St. Osyth or Ositha, daughter of King Frithwald and married to Sighere, King of the East Saxons. It is said that she lived as a religious person and was beheaded by the Danes in 653 AD, in one of their bloody ravages, because she would not worship their idols, and the Priory was built in her honour. It is also claimed that the Monastery adopted the arms of St. Osyth to honour her memory – three bloody crowns which spoke of the painful death of the pious virgin Queen and the gold shield of rich inheritance in heaven.

Literature : Image and information from here