Luton Town FC

Firstly, let's go straight to the nickname:

The Hatters. Matt enjoys towns known for particular industries, moving from the chairs of Wycombe to the hats of Luton.

Luton had over 500 hat-making companies in the 1800s, helped bizarrely by Napoleon. Straw boater hats had originally been imported from Italy until Napoleon took over and tried to strangle Britain into submission by creating something called the Continental System (basically blocking Britain from trading with Europe until they went broke... little did he know that if he'd waited until 2016, we'd have done it to ourselves... but I digress!).

Without access to European hat makers, we had to turn inwards, and Luton's industry boomed. Many French prisoners of war interned at Peterborough were skilled plaiters – it’s claimed they introduced the straw splitter, a device used in Europe to plait finer wheat, to the area.

By the 1930s, Luton was making over 70 million hats a year. Post-WW2, the industry declined, but unlike many traditional industries, the town still hosts 10 hat-making companies, and people are still employed in the trade, which is great to see.

So, that's the nickname and the hat on top of the crest explained. What about the rest of the badge?

Well, there's a lot going on, with five more symbols here to digest. Let's start in the middle with the bee and the associated beehive in the top right. The bee shows up in a lot of football badges and heraldry – the Manchester "bee," for example – all for the same reason. Brits in the 19th century enjoyed a saying as much as we do today: centres of industry were said to be as busy as a bee. So, the bee represents industry (e.g., all those hats).

Top left is a bushel of wheat. This is a hat-tip to the local agricultural workers who provided the straw needed to plait together the hats. There is a local legend that James I, King of Scotland – and later King of England (the Union Jack is named after him) – brought French-trained plaiters from Scotland with him and settled them in the Luton Hoo estate to grow and plait the wheat for hats.

The rest of the symbols also allude to Scottish roots. The Napier family of Scotland were wealthy merchants who moved to England during the reign of Henry VIII. During the reign of Elizabeth, two generations after their move south, one of the sons, Robert Napier, grew famously rich through his involvement with the Turkey Company. This company didn't sell poultry but rather, more profitably, traded with the Ottomans (Turkey). Silks, spices, and all manner of other Middle Eastern goods came in, and Napier turned a huge profit. With these profits, he bought the estate of Luton Hoo, and James I made him a knight and granted him the title of Baron of Luton Hoo.

The Napiers’ coat of arms, which featured a rose, has made it to the modern Luton Coat of Arms (bottom left). All of these Scottish connections are celebrated with the inclusion of the thistle – bottom right.

So, there you have it. A world-beating industry, built on foreign expertise and funded through trade with the Middle East.

The world doesn't change as much as you think, does it? You'd have to be as mad as a Hatter to think it does.