Thread: Wildlife in Art
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Old 18-02-2008, 07:56 AM
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paul m paul m is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Sheffield, UK
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Seahorses

I've long wondered why the civic centre of Newcastle (Northumbria, UK) is surmounted by rings of seahorse heads - as yesterday in the grey light of dawn:


Certainly Tyneside was a ship-building area and Newcastle had quays but it is quite inland. Apparently seahorses are the supporters at the side of the arms of Newcastle.

Looking into this it seems that the University of Newcastle in Australia also has a sort of seahorse on its arms:

University of Newcastle, Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fascinating thing heraldry. Usually, though, most of the animals, other than lions, are mythological beasts.
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