ROTARY club members enjoyed a talk about heraldry.

The speaker at a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Mold was one of its own members - Allan Bayliss.

His chosen subject was “heraldry” which has been described as the 'floral border in the garden of history'.

A spokesman for the club explained: "Heraldry developed in Norman French times in response to the need to be able to distinguish the various sides in battle - the chain and plate mail worn by opposing warriors looked very much the same.

"It happened that when Richard II and his army invaded Scotland in 1385 two of his knights found that they were bearing the same coat of arms - Sir Richard Scrope of Bolton and Sir Robert Grosvenor of Chester.

"A court case followed which adjudicated in favour of Scrope.

"The High Court of Chivalry was established to resolve disputes and last sat in 1954 to adjudicate between Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd.

"The case was that the theatre was displaying the arms of the Corporation thus implying that it was linked with the City’s council. "The court ruled in favour of the Council.

"Allan’s talk was well illustrated with examples of heraldry - civic, ecclesiastical, Institutional and private - it was particularly fascinating to see the coats of arms of Lord Tonypandy, Elton John, Paul Macartney, Niels Bohr (the Danish Physicist) and Sir Isaac Newton."

The meeting took place at the Beaufort Park Hotel (pictured). Rotarian John Davies proposed the vote of thanks.