THE COAT OF ARMS

OF THE PARISH OF 

OUR LADY AND ALL SAINTS PARBOLD

 

The Parish Coat of Arms has as its format the Coat of Arms of the ancient pre-Reformation Abbey of Westminster. The College of Heralds in recognition of the fact that the community of Saint Laurence at Ampleforth is the legitimate descendant of the pre-Reformation Westminster Abbey has granted this Westminster Abbey Coat of Arms to Ampleforth Abbey.

It is the Monks of Saint Laurence’s Abbey at Ampleforth who have served the Parish of Our Lady and All Saints in Parbold, since its foundation in 1884. The motto of the current Ampleforth Coat of Arms is Dieu le ward – God the protector - a pun on the name of Dieulouard in France where the community were in exile from 1606 until 1789.

On 21 November 1607, Father Sigebert Buckley OSB, the last surviving Monk of Queen Mary Tudor’s Westminster Abbey, passed on the Benedictine Habit, and thus the rights of Westminster Abbey, to two English Monks who subsequently became members of the community of Saint Laurence, exiled at Dieulouard in France. In 1789, at the French Revolution, this community were driven from France, and finally settled at Ampleforth in Yorkshire in 1802 having spent some months at Parbold Hall that year.

The same motto appears on the Coat of Arms of Our Lady and All Saints Parbold linking the Parish with Ampleforth and Dieulouard, as well as linking the Parish with pre-Reformation Westminster Abbey due to the format of the Coat of Arms

In the Arms for Our Lady and All Saints Parbold the top left sector depicts the Par-bold – the Pear Tree from which Parbold may derive its name - the enclosure of Pears.  This Pear Tree also appears on the Arms of Parbold Village Council.

The top right sector of Our Lady and All Saints Coat of Arms depicts the Red Rose of Lancashire.

In the Westminster-Ampleforth Coat of Arms the bottom sector of the Coat of Arms depicts the Golden Sun over the Blue River Thames. For Our Lady and All Saints it is the Blue of Our Lady over the Golden colour assigned to All the Saints in Heaven.