Heraldry on the Façade of Bishop's Old Ely Palace

Continuing to look at some of the pictures of heraldry that my late wife Jo took for me, today we look at the façade of Bishop's Old Ely Palace, next door to Ely Cathedral in, naturally enough, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

The palace was built in the 15th century by Bishop John Alcock and was one of the official residences of the Bishop of Ely until 1941. During the Second World War the palace was used as a base for the British Red Cross, and then as a home for disabled children until its closure in the 1980s. Following this the palace was purchased on a 99-year lease by the Sue Ryder Care organization, although the palace went up for sale again in 2010. Later that year King's Ely (renamed from "The King's School" in March 2012), a cathedral school, took over the lease and had the palace refurbished to be used as the school's Sixth Form Centre.

With that historical information, you should be able to guess what two coats of arms are found on the exterior of the Palace.

Can you?

The first is, unsurprisingly, the arms of the Diocese of Ely, Gules three crowns or, which we have seen many times over in the pictures taken of heraldry in both the exterior and interior of Ely Cathedral.

The other is, of course, the arms of the man who had the Palace built: John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, Argent on a fess between three cock’s heads erased sable crested and jelloped gules a mitre or. Jesus College, Cambridge, whose arms we have also seen before, uses a modified version of Bishop Alcock’s arms, adding a charged bordure, as he was a founder of the College.

The Palace has had a long and involved history, which you can read more about at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop%27s_Palace,_Ely, but the heraldry which was placed there at its beginning remains identifiable to this day, some 600 years later.

How cool is that?