The armorial bearings comprise a complete Achievement of Arms i.e. shield, crest and helm and mantling, supporters, badge and motto, reflecting the union of the three local authorities in the area on 1 April 1974, i.e. Lytham St Anne’s Borough Council, Kirkham Urban District Council and Fylde Rural District Council.
The shield portrays a typical Fylde windmill in gold on a green background suggested by the gold windmill sails on green in the arms of Fylde RDC. This suggests the rural Fylde or ‘field’, particularly the area bounded by the Wyre and Ribble, which are symbolised by the six white and blue waves on either side. These appeared in both the Fylde RDC and Lytham St Anne’s arms. Above the shield is the closed helm proper to civic arms, with its crest-wreath and decorative mantling or tournament cloak in the basic colours of the arms, green and gold.
The crest itself is indicative of the union of three Lancashire areas having historical association’s with the Clifton family. The arm in armour from their crest was seen in the Fylde RDC crest, and the three red stars from their shield were part of the heraldry of Lytham St Anne’s and Kirkham. The arm and stars are here combined, and the gauntleted hand grasps a sprig of three red roses on one stalk with three leaves to suggest the union of the three Lancastrian authorities.
The supporters are taken from the arms of Lytham St Anne’s and Kirkham. On the left is one of the white lions from the Lytham St Anne’s shield, wearing for necessary distinction a crest-wreath of the Borough’s liveries, white and blue, from which hangs an hexagonal medallion bearing the white cross on blue which accompanies the lions in the Borough arms. The lions and cross are part of the ecclesiastical heraldry of Durham, the See of which owned the 12th century Priory of Lytham.
The other supporter has also an ecclesiastical origin, being the gold lion of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, borne by his Abbey at Shrewsbury, to which the Lordship of St Michael, including Kirkham, was given in the 11th century by Roger de Pioctou, the Lord of Amounderness. This lion also wears a wreath, of the Kirkham colours, gold and blue, from which hangs a medallion like the other, bearing the main emblem from Kirkham’s arms – the dove and olive branch from the ancient Kirkham borough seal, gold on blue.
For a motto there can be no better choice than the motto of the former Fylde RDC Gaudeat Ager from Psalm 96:
‘Let the field (Fylde) be joyful or let Fylde prosper’
