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Blazon
Shield:
Per Fess wavy Azure and barry wavy of six Argent, of the
first a double-towered Castle or, in Chief on an Inescutcheon of
the third a Lion passant guardant Gules.
Crest:
On a Wreath of the Colours an Osprey rising holding in the
Beak a Fish proper.
Supporters:
Dexter: a Lion Gules gorged with a Mural Crown Or; Sinister
side a Dragon Gules gorged with a Mural Crown Or.
Motto:
Floreat Swansea
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The Corporation of the County Borough of Swansea was granted its coat
of arms in 1922, and was retained during subsequent local government reforms
in which the City of Swansea became a district in the County of West Glamorgan
in 1974 and a unitary City and County in 1996.
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| The unofficial 1863-1922 arms in seal form |
Before 1922 the seal of the corporation contained a portculis, probably
because it was a bage of the Somerset family, Lords of Gower, but from 1843
the Corporation also used a coat of arms supposedly based on a 16th century
seal. This was similar to today's arms, but banners of the de Broes family
(Lords of Gower in the 13th and early 14th centuries) flew from the towers
and the shield in the chief contained an osprey rather than a lion.
This seal, sometimes shown in shield form, was not a legally-granted
coat of arms, and in his 1905 book Armorial families Heraldic expert
A.C. Fox-Davies mentioned Swansea as one of the offenders in strident attack
on the use of unapproved "assumed" arms.
