Thursday, November 2, 2023

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round (Part 1)


The City of York has a fairly extensive public transportation system, one part of which is city buses, painted mostly purple (lilac? pinkish?) and advertised as "In Partnership with the University of York".

As the buses were moving every time I saw one, it was a bit tricky to get pictures of all of the heraldry, and logos, painted on their sides. Still, I managed to get the majority of them, and will discuss them in this post and the next one.

To give you an idea of what I was seeing there, here's one of the buses, with nine shields/logos along its side, as well as two shields, one at the far end of the upper row, and another down between the front and rear wheels. (You'll probably want to click on the image below to go to the full-size version, where you can see the details better.)


It turns out, the nine shields/logos along the side are nine of the eleven colleges that make up the University of York. The other two shields, upper and lower, are the arms of the University itself. Though you couldn't tell it from the colors they are painted here, the arms are blazoned: Azure on a chevron ermine three closed books fesswise proper each with two clasps downward or.

The three shields/logos which I was not quite fast enough to catch on my camera are, from left to right:

On the far left: Alcuin College, Gules on a chevron sable between in chief an open book and an oak tree and in base eleven [mullets? roundels?] in the form of a broadhead, the letters ALCUIN all argent.

Fourth from the left: Goodricke College, Vert on a fess between two lions passant argent a fleur-de-lis between two crescents vert. Clearly, one of the more heraldic college shields!

And seventh from the left: Langwith College, Argent to dexter a tree with drooping leaves and to sinister in pale a rose all outlined and the interlaced letters L C sable.

I obtained the tinctures of these from the University of York website and the pages of the respective colleges.

Next time, another bus, and close-ups of the other six designs, both heraldic and not.

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