Club Badge - Burnley FC
The current club badge was bestowed upon the club in 1960 as a result of the first team winning the First Division League title. Originally this device was the Burnley Borough Coat of Arms which was designed in 1854 for the Improvement Commissioners by a Mr Broughton of Bury and was adopted in 1862 by the Town Council. The following description of the original design is given in non-heraldic language:
The shield was gilded; at the top, on a wavy strip of silver, was depicted an open right hand with a bee on each side of it; below were two diamond shapes on each side of a green chevron with serrated edges. On the chevron was a small circle and below it was a purple lion with red tongue. The crest was a crane surmounting a helmet and heavy scroll work.
Since its adoption in 1862 by Town Council various alterations have been made in the design; finally in 1916, the College of Heralds accepted the present simpler and less colourful coat of arms. The top of the shield is now black and on it are two bees, representing “the industrious workers” and an open hand, implying “Justice and Honesty”; the wavy border represents the Brun River that runs through the town. The two diamond shapes are black and represent “spindles” on which Burnley prosperity depended in 1854. The chevron is red and the small circle, representing a bezant or Eastern coin implying wealth has disappeared. The lion is the “De Lacy Lion” recalling the fact that Burnley was originally dependent on the Norman De Lacies; the lion is now black. The Crest is a crane, denoting “Vigilance”; it is standing on a heap of raw cotton and holds in one foot a piece of coal and in its beak a cotton flower.
The motto “Pretiumque et causa laboris” which was lost from the badge after the 2010 season and replaced with “Burnley Football Club” is taken from Ovids Metamorphoses IV 739. The poem deals with the story of Andromeda who was chained to a rock on the seashore to be devoured by a sea monster; at the critical moment Perseus appeared and rescued the maiden, her father having promised her to him in marriage. Andromeda was therefore the “prize as well as the cause of his labour”. Applied to Burnley, this phrase implies that the town is both the reward and reason for the exertion of its people.
A relief of the Town Crest resided on the façade of Burnley 6th Form, which was demolished for houses in 2018. This relief was weathered and a little washed out, however after some renovation work conducted by the Burnley Engineer College at Victoria Mill, it was restored to its former glory and now resides on the Memorial Walls in the Garden.
Print 