Blue & Gold Trust
Official Websitewww.thelinnets.co.uk
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The King's Lynn Football Club Crest |
The crest of King's Lynn Football Club is basically that of the town of
King's Lynn - but that is just the start of any explanation. The crest shows
three heads - which may be dragons or conger eels - pierced by swords.
The argument for dragons . . .
The centre of King's Lynn is in the parish of the church of Saint Margaret whose
legend is . . .
Margaret of Antioch was the daughter of Theodosius the patriarch of Antioch.in the third century.
She was a 15-year-old martyred for her refusal to renounce Christianity and marry the pagan ruler Olybius.
There are various accounts of her life, one of the better known tells of her encounter with Satan in the shape of a dragon. which sprang to devour her, but she made
the sign of the cross and it disappeared.
According to another account, the dragon got its jaws over Margaret's head and its tongue around her feet and
swallowed her, and it was while it was attempting to digest her that spear she was carrying pierced the inside of the dragon
which burst apart, and she emerged unhurt.
The spear, it should be pointed out, is a "cross-crosslet" with its head forming
a cross with each of the three arms crossed - like thus:
the theory being that wherever you go you always have a cross handy to stick in
the ground for a quick worship.
So there you have it - the Lynn crest is based on the legend of St Margaret
which is the parish church of the town. Admittedly Margaret only killed the one
dragon whilst the Lynn crest shows three dragon heads but the again the
"cross-crosslet" is definitely on the badge.
St Margaret didn't have a monopoly on dragon killing and myth's abound of the
devil taking on the form of a dragon and being killed by the likes of St George,
St Martha, St Michael and St Silvester.
And for eels . . .
Meanwhile the arms of Lenne's Benedictine Priory is said to depict the
heads of three conger eels. Quite where the information comes from, and why
conger eels, is not clear. Obviously given the watery nature of the area in its
early history, fishing was an important part of life and there is an easy
connection to be made from Conger Eel to sea monster to dragon. With fishing
being a livelihood in the area it is quite possible that such a emblem was
common in the Fenland area.
But that's not all . . .
 The
KLFC crest seems to have lost bits over the years. The King's Lynn Football Club
Handbook which appeared at the start of the 1968-69 season (price two shillings)
shows three crudely drawn sword pierced heads above which is a bird of some
kind - but once again it is not clear what type of bird - clearly not a linnet
but possibly a eagle or a pelican! Neither bird are frequently seen hovering
over Lynn but the pelican, being a renowned catcher of fish, seems possible
although both eagle and pelican lecterns can be found in Norfolk churches
whilst the eagle is a symbol associated with St John - another of Lynn's
churches.
The pelican can be found on the font cover in St Margaret's church and is depicted
in the act of wounding her breast in order to feed her young with her blood. The pelican was a symbol for Christ in the medieval church, representing self-sacrifice, compassion and charity.
The bird on the Lynn crest seems to have flown circa 1981. It was there on the
crest when it was featured in the Lynn News on 20th March 1981 when a link
between Lynn and Manchester City was announced but when the Lynn matchday
programme was revamped shortly afterwards it had gone - perhaps because it was
difficult to print or to use as an emblem of shirts and pullovers!
Ironically, despite the nickname, a linnet never seems to have appeared as
part of the Lynn crest although there is a bird, said to be a seagull, at the top of the West Norfolk Borough Council Coat of Arms.
|  A linnet (maybe) appeared on the
supporters club badge circa mid/late 1950's.
The relevance, if any, of the letters TU which appear in the football is not
obvious - any ideas would be welcome.
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