The Essex Coat of Arms
The Seax

Throughout Essex the county coat of arms appears on village and town signs, school name boards, fire engines, police helmets and county council vehicles. It is also prominently displayed when entering the county by main roads.

The coat of arms consists of three seaxes placed one above the other. The seax is a curved sword or knife with a hilt, its handle terminating in a pommel or knob. There is a semi circular notch on the back of each blade and they are believed to have evolved from Saxon short swords which were originally 21 - 46 cms long and about 5 cms deep. The official coat of arms colours are:-

In plain English this is; silver for the seax with the cutting edge upwards and the pommel pointing to the left, shown on a red shield.

There is an element of mystery as to why Essex adopted the seax. In the Anglo Saxon Chronicles Essex is called Eastseaxe. Study by historians and heraldic experts suggest something similar to the Essex coat of arms was used in the East Saxon kingdom over 1000 years ago. However the Saxons were decisively defeated by King Knut's (Canute) Danish Vikings at the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016. King Canute became the undisputed King of England and the Saxon rulers fled west or went into exile. Although the Saxons returned following the death of King Canute they were again crushed by the Normans in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Essex coat of arms appeared in print more or less as it is today, but with a Saxon crown above it, in John Speed's 1623 book 'Historie of Great Britaine'. It would seem safe to assume that it was in use long before that.

With the growth of printing more and more Essex towns, villages and organisations adopted the emblem. Surprisingly it was not until 1932 that the College of Arms officially granted Essex its current coat of arms.

With thanks to the Chief Executive of Essex County Council and the Essex Records Office