Whilst in Greece i was talking to a ex pat from Cardiff who now lives on the island of Kos,the discussion came round to the colour change and the badge . As he was in his 70`s he told me a story about the Swift on the Bluebird badge and how it came to be ,now maybe its true or maybe not but he was adamant it was and here it is ,and yes i know the story about the play in the New Theatre called the same but how did the Swift come to be on our badge............ In the early days of Cardiff City we were once sponsered by the owner of a sweet making firm called Mackingtosh who made toffees ect ect and they had a toffee mint called Bluebird mints ..........he was 100% convinced that this was the case, but over to you lot what you think? ..........;o)
Maybe the ol bugger was having me on Rhondda but he discribed the mint wrapper as bluebird and the name Mackintosh but would take some investigation to finds out ,interesting theory or a ol mans taunt lol. Still ,why have we a Swift on the badge tho?
Bluebird toffee has nothing to do with Macintosh's toffee. They were different company's but both now sadly gone after being swallowed up by larger entity's. Nice little story though.
[h=1]The Beautiful History[/h][h=2]Of Club Crests, Club Colours & Nicknames[/h] http://thebeautifulhistory.wordpress.com/clubs/cardiff-city/ nothing here about toffee JH I'm sure I've still got one of those little metal hammers here somewhere?
Bloody hell, I vaguely recall the toffee hammers, great story and the sands of time may have affected the old fellas memory about the manufacturer.
It's interesting to see how often and for how long a red dragon was part of the City badge. seems there is nothing new!! lol The read in "the beautiful history" was very interesting although I've read it before. I'm sure I can remember when The City were AFC as in Football Assiciation. Not sure I agree with the comment about the Romans bringing the Dragon to Wales though, I believe as a National emblem it is the oldest in the world in terms of length of use and still in use, and that would predate the romans by a couple of hundred if not thousand years. The use by the Prince of Wales of the 3 feathers as his personal Cypher is very interesting. Before the Battle of Crecy in 1346 the Nobility of Europe gathered to destroy perfidious Albion. Amongst their ranks was King Martin of Bohemia. King Martin was over 70 years old and totally blind but he was determined to join against the English in battle. So he had himself tied to his horse and had a knight tied either side of him to take him into the fray. Needless to say they stood no chance and all three were slaughtered. It was custom in those times that the day after the battle teams would go out and note the names of all the enemy nobility that were dead on the field and then their own nobility would be questioned to determine which knight or duke had killed which etc. The morning after the battle, The Black Prince, Prince of Wales, was out in the field taking tally when he found the King and his two loyal knight dead, still tied together. He said it was the bravest act he had ever witnessed or heard of in his life and as a mark of respect and honour for King Matrin, that henceforth the emblem of the Kings of Bohemia, the 3 feathers would be his Cypher and the Cypher of all the Princes of Wales in perpetuity, and so it is. This also explains why the promise on the Cypher, "I Serve" is in German, Ich Dien. to link all these together ( see how I did that) it is of interest that Both the Black Prince at Crecy, and King Henry V at Agincourt fought under the banner of the Red Dragon of Wales. Also Henry tudor, earl of Richmond (Lancastrian), later Henry VII, raised his Army in Monmouth and fought under the Dragon at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and having defeated and killed Richard III (Yorkist) had the Red Dragon flag taken in state in full parade to St Paul's in London (The pre-great fire one) where he had the Dragon blessed and had a service of thanksgiving. No wonder the poor English are jealous, they've only got a flag of another State that they had to buy to protect themselves from those nasty pirates. But that's another story!!! lmao
Brilliant piece of work snaggle and very interesting ,its only when we leave school that we start to wonder why the history we get put infront of us is mainly the english history of Britain and not our own country ,so much history to the welsh and wales and its kept on the back shelves .
