Peterborough is another club that has quite rightly relied heavily on the town’s coat of arms for the club badge. (PIC 1) In the roundel, it is in the club colours, and the name is at the top. The formation date is at the bottom, and in the scroll, the motto “UPON THIS ROCK. Not that long ago the club’s badge was the full coat of arms. (PIC 2) These arms were granted in 1960, the same year they made it into the Football League, and are the arms of Peterborough Borough Council. Peterborough’s origin stems from a monastery dedicated to the glory of Christ, and the honour of Peter to whom the cross keys on the blue shield are attributed. (PIC 3) They are the keys to the gates of heaven, given to Peter by Jesus, and recorded in the Bible at Mathew 16:19. The keys are surrounded by a mural crown. There is also a gold coloured towered mural crown on the crest and these are believed to allude to the walls of the town. The ermine lion supporters are from the Marquees of Exeter, Lord Paramount of Peterborough, and the eagle’s wings derive from the first Earl of Peterborough. The stars that adorn them also come from his arms. At the base of the arms under the supporters are ragged tree branches, taken from the arms of Earl Fitzwilliam, whose estate forms part of Peterborough. The whole lot stands on a rock and the motto “UPON THIS ROCK” echo that fact.
The football club was formed 26 years earlier than the arms, on May 17th 1934, after the collapse of Peterborough and Fletton United two years earlier, and as mentioned had to wait until 1960 to move into the Football League. If you were to ask some spotty kid who is “The Posh”, they would no doubt answer, Victoria Beckham. They would be, as kids today so often are, wrong. Some time ago, she quite unbelievably tried taking court action against Peterborough United, by saying the name Posh is her trademark. Which, if I was Mr Posh would have left me extremely red-faced. This slip of a lass has only been around for 40 odd years, and has only been known as Posh Spice since the forgettable launch of the Spice Girls in 1996. They lasted about three years due to being pretty rubbish. Peterborough’s nickname goes further back than the club itself as it is connected to earlier club’s of the city. Although the present club was not formed until 1934, the Posh name came about a decade earlier, almost certainly originating with a chap called Pat Tirell. Pat was player-manager of Fletton United, and in the close season of 1921 announced that he was looking for posh players to play for a posh team, and they were to compete in the Northamptonshire League. Fletton, who were previously known as the Brickies reformed as Peterborough and Fletton United in 1923, and both nicknames were used throughout the 1920s, Fletton the Brickies and Peterborough the Posh.
When the present club formed after the demise of Peterborough and Fletton United, they played in their Midland League debut on September 1st 1934, the cry from the fans was “Up the Posh” and so it has stayed to this very day. The Peterborough Posh nickname will outlive the players and fans alike. As they say on the terrace of London Road: “Up the Posh”.
Many thanks, go to Phillip Adlam, at Peterborough for pointing me in the right direction of the club’s website. What about the name Peterborough? One day a bunch of Anglo-Saxons were out for a bimble, and after a while they came to a nice spot by some water, so sat down for a snack of boars head and mead. They liked it so much they decided to build a village there and called it, Medehamstede. This was not named after their snack, but meant the place of the spring by a river. An Abbey was erected, and around AD 1000, a wall was built around the settlement to protect it from attack, as there is only one thing more paranoid than an Anglo-Saxon, and that’s an Anglo-Saxon wild boar. The Abbey was called St Peter’s, and Burgh is the Saxon word for a fortified settlement. St Petersburgh became the new name, and is now known as Peterborough. The real Posh play at the 15,314 capacity London Road Stadium, or as their sponsors would have it known, the Weston Homes Stadium. Local rivals to the Posh are Northampton Town, Lincoln and Cambridge United. For more details on Peterborough United put on your poshest frock and go to www.theposh.com
