RESEARCH for work to redesign an official coat of arms for Porlock has discovered the current one was never made ‘official’.

Parish councillors were told that to register a crest with the College of Arms would cost about £25,000.

They heard detective work had been ongoing to preserve the history of the village’s coat of arms, and minutes of council meetings from 1979 revealed it was never formally adopted.

It was first used by Porlock Visitor Centre and then as a stamp for the Porlock Vale newsletter before being presented by two donors as chairman’s regalia in 1980, but ‘formal adoption has never been documented’.

Now, Cllr Craig Gardner has been working on a redesign and trying to uncover any ‘creative history’ to ‘bring life and meaning to the design’.

Councillors, who have already ruled out the idea of spending £25,000 on registration, will consider the issue again when they next meet on January 25.