Geograph - photograph every grid square

The arms bear a boar's head, although the swine in the village name is derived from a silted waterway called the Swin and not from associations with the animal. The motto 'per utilitate' may be translated as 'through service'. The upper panel is of the Market Place with the War Memorial, gardens, stocks and a 14th century cross base, and St Mary's parish church behind. The lower panel shows, from the left, the Swineshead Silver Band, founded in 1886 as a brass band; King John, who took lodgings and was supposedly poisoned by a monk in Swineshead's Cistercian Abbey in October 1216 after losing his treasure in The Wash; and a representation of the rich agriculture of the area.