Today’s Lady Mayor Show reminded me to share a little history about the mace that accompanies me in the Show, in turn accompanied by the Broad Street Ward Beadle.
Our Broad Street mace is flourished at Wardmotes and formal gatherings such as Common Hall or the Lord Mayor’s Show. Ours is the second oldest mace among the 25 wards, dating back to 1635 and saved from the Great Fire of 1666. Cheap Ward’s dates to 1625.
The picture above is George Martin brandishing ours.
On ours:
On all City maces from The Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office of the Cities and Corporate Towns of England and Wales by L. Jewitt & W.H. St. John Hope (London, 1895):