South Oxfordshire

Heraldry of the World Civic heraldry of the United Kingdom

SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE

Additions : 1974 Bullingdon RDC, Henley RDC, Henley-on-Thames, Thame, Wallingford, Wallingford RDC

Official blazon

Arms :
Crest :
Supporters :
Motto :

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted in 1981.

The design on the shield embraces variants of the sunburst from the Henley arms, a railway crossing from the arms of Didcot, a portcullis from the arms of Wallingford and two wheatsheaves from the Thame town badge. The shield is supported by an ox for Oxfordshire and a lion guardant for England, each 'gorged' with a crown symbolising the links with the Sovereign extending from the Royal Castle at Wallingford to the Royal Flight at Benson. Each of the supporters holds a beech branch for the Chiltern villages and stands on a grassy mound for the Oxfordshire plain.

The Thames is represented by symbolic water, traversed by a stone bridge, and the whole design is surmounted by a golden dragon passant resting its foreleg on a mitre for Dorchester where the King of Wessex was baptized into Christianity and for the diocese once based there.

Literature : Image and information provided by Laurence Jones.