Emblematically Speaking - Daisy Hill
Tue 21st November 2017 | Daisy Hill | By Stewart Taylor
The Daisy Hill club emblem features three motifs, positioned in a triangular design, and, as we might expect, each has its own reason for inclusion.
At the apex of the triangle sits a blue lion, depicted passant in heraldic terminology, and the origins of this are based on the early days of the club. As you enter Daisy Hill by road, heading for the ground at New Sirs, you will see straight ahead a Bargain Booze convenience store.
Directly across the road from the store are now a row of private houses, but these were converted into domestic residences a number of years ago. On this site originally there used to be a pub. Latterly, it was known as the "Daisy Hill Hotel" and when it closed, simply as "The Daisy Hill" but back in the 50s and 60s it was known as the "Blue Lion".
In those days there was only a pitch at New Sirs and no club house or dressing rooms, and players taking part in games used to change in the pub before and afterwards.
We may muse for a while on the subject of pub names and regular readers may recall a reference to a Black Lion in a previous article.
For lovers of wildlife, and particularly the big cats, it may come as a surprise to discover that the lion is represented in such a range of colours. Any list of popular pub names in the UK will show Red Lion, White Lion and Black Lion as amongst the top 100. There are not too many Golden Lions and even fewer Blue Lions (15 according to some sources).
We could spend quite some time considering the fascinating subject of pub signs here, but the use of pub signs was for exactly the same reason that coats of arms, emblems and other graphical representations were introduced, namely that large numbers of the population were illiterate, so “pictures” were used as identifiers.
Underneath the lion are two flower motifs whose inclusion is more obvious. The exact origins of the name Daisy Hill are unknown, but local records note the existence of a "Daisey Hillock" around the site of the present village in 1824, so it seems reasonable to assume that the name is taken literally from a hill or landmark covered in daisies.
The final motif is a red rose, to signify the club's location in the county of Lancashire. The use of a rose to signify the County of Lancaster is now so well established that little thought is given as to why.
Exactly the same could be said of the White Rose of York of course. As ever, there are a number of theories which have abounded down the years. The rose is generally accepted as an English symbol although the rose bush was not indigenous to these isles.
The original rose of the House of Lancaster was golden in colour but it was changed to red during or slightly after the Wars of the Roses (1455 – 1487). It may well be the case that the colour red was chosen to represent blood as lost by the fighters under the flag of Lancaster.
There is also a suggestion that the use of the colour red was as a direct differentiation from the White Rose of York.
On the other hand, the colour White is associated with concepts of innocence, purity and joy, which, back in the day, may well have been thought to be inappropriate to the warrior class.
The Daisy Hill FC emblem was designed in the early 1980s by current long serving Secretary Bob Naylor, for the simple reason that they didn't have one! Once the club left the Lancashire Combination and joined the North West Counties League in 1982, Bob decided that it was time the club had an official emblem, so he set about designing one.
Bob said: "I spent time looking through local history books, to see if there were any traditional town or village emblems for either Daisy Hill or Westhoughton, but I couldn't find anything, so it was a case of having to design something myself.
"The daisy and the red rose were obvious choices, and the blue lion denotes the link back to the club's earliest days when the pub in the village was used as a changing room for players. The emblem has been in existence and unchanged ever since".
(With thanks to Bob Naylor and League Media Officer Ian Templeman for their input into this article).
Emblematically Speaking - Daisy Hill
Tue 21st November 2017 | Daisy Hill
By Stewart Taylor
The Daisy Hill club emblem features three motifs, positioned in a triangular design, and, as we might expect, each has its own reason for inclusion.
At the apex of the triangle sits a blue lion, depicted passant in heraldic terminology, and the origins of this are based on the early days of the club. As you enter Daisy Hill by road, heading for the ground at New Sirs, you will see straight ahead a Bargain Booze convenience store.
Directly across the road from the store are now a row of private houses, but these were converted into domestic residences a number of years ago. On this site originally there used to be a pub. Latterly, it was known as the "Daisy Hill Hotel" and when it closed, simply as "The Daisy Hill" but back in the 50s and 60s it was known as the "Blue Lion".
In those days there was only a pitch at New Sirs and no club house or dressing rooms, and players taking part in games used to change in the pub before and afterwards.
We may muse for a while on the subject of pub names and regular readers may recall a reference to a Black Lion in a previous article.
For lovers of wildlife, and particularly the big cats, it may come as a surprise to discover that the lion is represented in such a range of colours. Any list of popular pub names in the UK will show Red Lion, White Lion and Black Lion as amongst the top 100. There are not too many Golden Lions and even fewer Blue Lions (15 according to some sources).
We could spend quite some time considering the fascinating subject of pub signs here, but the use of pub signs was for exactly the same reason that coats of arms, emblems and other graphical representations were introduced, namely that large numbers of the population were illiterate, so “pictures” were used as identifiers.
Underneath the lion are two flower motifs whose inclusion is more obvious. The exact origins of the name Daisy Hill are unknown, but local records note the existence of a "Daisey Hillock" around the site of the present village in 1824, so it seems reasonable to assume that the name is taken literally from a hill or landmark covered in daisies.
The final motif is a red rose, to signify the club's location in the county of Lancashire. The use of a rose to signify the County of Lancaster is now so well established that little thought is given as to why.
Exactly the same could be said of the White Rose of York of course. As ever, there are a number of theories which have abounded down the years. The rose is generally accepted as an English symbol although the rose bush was not indigenous to these isles.
The original rose of the House of Lancaster was golden in colour but it was changed to red during or slightly after the Wars of the Roses (1455 – 1487). It may well be the case that the colour red was chosen to represent blood as lost by the fighters under the flag of Lancaster.
There is also a suggestion that the use of the colour red was as a direct differentiation from the White Rose of York.
On the other hand, the colour White is associated with concepts of innocence, purity and joy, which, back in the day, may well have been thought to be inappropriate to the warrior class.
The Daisy Hill FC emblem was designed in the early 1980s by current long serving Secretary Bob Naylor, for the simple reason that they didn't have one! Once the club left the Lancashire Combination and joined the North West Counties League in 1982, Bob decided that it was time the club had an official emblem, so he set about designing one.
Bob said: "I spent time looking through local history books, to see if there were any traditional town or village emblems for either Daisy Hill or Westhoughton, but I couldn't find anything, so it was a case of having to design something myself.
"The daisy and the red rose were obvious choices, and the blue lion denotes the link back to the club's earliest days when the pub in the village was used as a changing room for players. The emblem has been in existence and unchanged ever since".
(With thanks to Bob Naylor and League Media Officer Ian Templeman for their input into this article).
