Tranmere Rovers

Let's take a closer look at this famous old team and #GetTheBadgeIn for Tranmere Rovers, because they have, objectively, a beautiful badge with an absolute tonne going on.

Initially formed as a merger between two cricket clubs’ "Association Football" branches in 1884, one of their early kits was a striking orange and maroon design, resembling a modern-day Bradford more than the "Superwhites" of modern Tranmere. They’ve been a Football League regular in their time and recently secured back-to-back promotions to return to League One.

Their badge is a beauty. Let's start at the top...

The ship. A warship. Despite that silhouette being made in 1962, the ship looks much like the new Type 26 City Class, of which the first, HMS Cardiff, is shortly due into service. The ship alludes to the extensive dockyards that sat (and still operate) in Tranmere, Birkenhead, and Wirral, especially the historic Cammell Laird yards. In their heyday, they were at the cutting edge of naval technology. They built the world's first fully welded ship in 1929, the coaster Fullagar; HMS Caroline—built in a record 9 months (now a museum ship in Belfast); the WW2 aircraft carrier Ark Royal; and hundreds more ships since then.

Interestingly, the yards still operate today on a reduced scale and built the flight decks of the current RN's carriers and the research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough (aka Boaty McBoatface).

Perhaps the strangest ship built was the CSS Alabama, constructed for the US Confederacy during the Civil War. She went on a jolly around the Atlantic and Caribbean before being pursued back to France, where she was sunk by a Union ship off Cherbourg.

There was a company team from the dockyards, which today still exists as Cammell Laird FC. They play in the North West Counties League and use the company logo (a camel, oddly enough) as their badge.

Anyway, that's the ship explained!

Let's get to work on the rest of the badge because there's a lot to unpack.

Let’s go with the yellow crosier (staff) and lion. They are borrowed from the Birkenhead Coat of Arms and symbolise the Birkenhead Priory—the oldest building in Merseyside, dating back to 1150. The monks looked after travellers and were perfectly positioned at the end of the cross-Mersey ferry service. Today, it sits surrounded by heavy industry and remains an island of peace in a sea of industrial havoc.

The tree comes from older Tranmere heraldry, reflecting the oak trees that used to grow in the area, as far as I can tell.

The two lions supposedly represent Oxton, a village swallowed up by Birkenhead. The Oxton family crest features one lion, but the area was long owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury, who has two lions on his coat of arms. The Earl’s land also used to include Alton Towers.

The blue "star" supposedly represents Bebington, which does have a giant star or sunray behind its coat of arms, though I’m not entirely sure if that’s correct. Bebington itself has two great claims: firstly, today's Bebington Golf Course is where the Battle of Brunanburh took place in 937. Æthelstan, King of the Saxons, defeated a combined army of Irish, Scots, and Cumbrians. Some historians see this decisive victory as the beginning of a united England. Secondly, a recent study named Bebington as the best place to live in the UK based on house prices, parks, and public services. Not bad—I’ll have to remember that.

Lastly, the crescents in the shield are a bit of a mystery, but the best connection seems to be the coat of arms of the Laird family—as in Cammell Laird, the shipbuilders.

And that takes us full circle—or full crest.

So, there you have it. A cracking badge: battles that made England, motel monks, ships that defeated Hitler—and a half-decent football team.

Up the Rovers!