The Crewe Arms: Inspiration for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts?
The Crewe Arms: Inspiration for
Harry Potter’s Hogwarts?
by
Charles E S Fairey & Michael C Oakes
May 2020
At the Crewe Arms Hotel, opposite Crewe Railway
Station, in the South Cheshire town of Crewe, in the UK, exists a Coat of Arms
of the Crewe Family, upon a marble fireplace, in the main Entrance Hall to the
Hotel.
The reason this Coat of Arms is interesting to all
Harry Potter fans, is the distinct possibility that it was used as inspiration
for the Harry Potter novels, especially for the Houses of Hogwarts School!
The Coat of Arms on the
Marble Fireplace
to the Entrance of the Crewe Arms Hotel
The Coat of Arms itself is a quartered shield, and
is surmounted by a closed vizored helm[et] of steel, sideways, which indicated
that the coat of arms was for an esquire or gentleman.
The quartered Shield is made up of:-
Top Left: A Lion Rampant
This coat of arms represents the basic arms of the
Crewe Family, namely ‘Azure a lion rampant Argent’. That is ‘an erect silver
lion, upon a blue background’. The Silver Lion Rampant is often known in the
area as the ‘White Lion’ of the Crewes.
Top Right: Fleur-de-lys
within a diapered Pattern
This coat of arms represents the ancient arms of
the Crewe Family, and was used in the reign of Henry VIII, and later replaced
by the Silver Lion. It is ‘Gules, fretty and semy-de-lys Or’. That is
‘scattered gold fleur-de-lys of a field of fretty [interwoven over one another
bendlets and bendlets-sinister, like a trellis], on a red background’.
Bottom Left: A Lion Passant Guardant
on a Cross Fleury
This coat of arms represents the Offley Family of
Madeley, who gained the seat of the Crewes, after Ann Crewe, the only daughter
and heir of John Crewe (1624-1684), had married John Offley (1649-1711), after
his son, John Offley, and the rest of his children changed their name to Crewe,
in 1708, and deleted parts of their original coat of arms, namely, the four
Cornish cloughs Sable, beaked and legged Gules, and which coat of arms became
the coat of arms of the Barons of Crewe of Crewe, and is ‘Argent, on a cross
fleury Azure, a lion passant guardant Or’. That is ‘a walking gold lion, facing
the viewer, on a blue cross adorned at the ends with flowers, on a silver
background’.
Bottom Right: Three boys’
figures with a snake coiled around their necks
This coat of arms represents the Price Family, who
John Offley (1681-1749), who changed his name to Crewe, married into. He
married Sarah Price, and the coat of arms consists of ‘Gules [Sable], a fess
Argent between three boys’ heads couped at the shoulders entwined about the
neck by a snake Or [Vert]. That is ‘gold and green snakes entwining the necks,
at the shoulders, of three boys’ heads, cut straight at the bottom, between a
silver band, on a dark red background’.
Sarah Price married John Offley in 1707 [who
changed his name to Crewe, in 1708], and was the daughter of Morgan Price of
Nantgwared in Llywel in Breconshire. John Offley was the son of John Offley of
Madeley Manor in Staffordshire, and Ann Crewe, the only daughter and heir of
John Crewe (1624-1684). John Offley-Crewe inherited Crewe Hall and its estate,
from his mother Ann. The Prices were also linked with the Vaughan Family of
Tretower Court, Powys, and much of the South Wales, and Forest of Dean areas, who
share the same coat of arms, ‘a snake entwined around the neck’.
* * *
* * * *
Why is this Crewe Coat of Arms linked with Harry
Potter’s Hogwarts?
You may ask, what if anything does this coat of
arms possibly have to do with the world of Harry Potter, and Hogwarts?
Well if we look at the coat of arms of Hogwarts,
and the names and figures representing each of the four houses of the school,
we come up with a parallel, which infers that this Crewe coat of arms may be
the inspiration for the Hogwarts’ coat of arms, and a bit more!
The Coat of Arms of Hogwarts is a quartered shield,
with an italic ‘H’ representing ‘Hogwarts’ to the centre.
The quartered Shield is made up of:-
Top Left: A Lion Rampant
This erect lion represents the House of Gryffindor.
Top Right: A Snake
This snake represents the House of Slytherin.
Bottom Left: A Badger Passant
Reguardant
This walking badger with its head turned back over
its shoulder, represents the House of Hufflepuff.
Bottom Right: An Eagle
This Eagle often mistakenly shown as a Raven
represents the House of Ravenclaw.
* * *
* * * *
So now if we compare the quartered shields: of the Crewe Arms at the
Crewe Arms Hotel’s marble fireplace to its Entrance Hall; with that of Hogwarts;
we find that:-
The Lion Rampant [erect] is the same as the Crewe
Family’s basic coat of arms, and is in the same position in the quartered
shield.
The Snake is similar to the Price’s Family Coat of
Arms, a snake entwined around a boy’s neck, but in the Hogwarts coat of arms,
it is in the quarter above where the similar arms appear in the Crewe shield.
The Badger Passant [walking] is similar to the
walking Lion in the Crewe coat of arms, and is in the same position in the
quartered shield.
The Eagle or more specifically, the Eagle’s Claw, which
represent one of the four Hogwarts Houses, is similar to a fleur-de-lys, i.e. an
Eagle’s Claw is often made up of three claws protruding in front, with a claw
behind, which is similar to the symbol of the fleur-de-lys. However, the Eagle
is in the quarter below where the fleur-de-lys are depicted in the Crewe coat
of arms.
The Coat of Arms of Hogwarts
School
A Comparison of the Crewe Coat
of Arms with that of
the Coat of Arms of Hogwarts
School
* * *
* * * *
The Price’s Snake Coat of Arms and the House of
Slytherin
As mentioned above the Price Family Coat of Arms, consists
essentially of ‘a boy with a snake entwined around his neck.’
With
the human voice box being located in the neck, and our speech essentially being
developed in the neck and throat, the snake around the neck, when we connect
both the Price Coat of Arms, with the world of Harry Potter, then there is a
direct link between the real world and the fictional world.
That
connection or link exists in a number of characters, being ‘parselmouths’ in the
world of Harry Potter. A parselmouth is someone who has the ability to talk to
snakes. Slytherin, who gave his name to one of the Houses of Hogwarts, himself,
could talk to snakes, as well as Voldemort and Harry (Voldemort’s grandfather
and uncle, and presumably his mother were all parselmouths in the books as well).
The
snake entwined around the neck is a great symbol for their magical attribute.
Crewe Price Heraldic Stained
Glass Window, Old East Entrance, Crewe Hall (Left)
Enlarged ‘Snake Entwined
Around Neck of Boy’ (Right)
Why Crewe?
So why would this Crewe Family Coat of Arms,
situated on the marble fireplace of the Crewe Arms Hotel’s Entrance Hall, in
the South Cheshire Town of Crewe, have offered JK Rowling inspiration for the
Houses of Hogwarts?
Well, the town of Crewe was built in the mid
Victorian period as a new Railway town, around the new Railway Junction, often
depicted as a six spoked wheel, representing the number of railway lines which
converge at the junction, where Crewe Railway Station is situated.
If anyone has travelled on the West Coast Mainline,
or from Stoke, Derby, Birmingham, Cardiff, Chester, Liverpool, and Manchester,
etc, it is likely at some point they have travelled through Crewe, and its
railway station, or changed trains here, or even stopped overnight, to carry on
their journey the next day.
This means that JK Rowling is very likely to have
travelled through Crewe and its railway station, often throughout her life, but
most likely when she was living in Manchester, whilst working for the Chamber
of Commerce in the city, when she was visiting her parents, and friends, who
lived elsewhere.
It is recorded that whilst on a late train from
Manchester to London, in 1990, she first dreamed up the idea of Harry Potter!
That therefore makes it likely that she had stayed
at the Crewe Arms Hotel, a railway hotel, opposite the entrance to Crewe
Railway Station, and maybe whilst booking into her room, or over her stay, JK
Rowling sat in front and warmed herself by the marble fireplace, and noticed
the Crewe coat of arms, which gave her some of the inspiration for the Hogwarts
coat of arms, and its houses.
It is also a nice coincidence, that one of her
favourite writers, Charles Dickens’s grandfather and grandmother, were butler
and housekeeper at Crewe Hall, the stately mansion where the Crewe Family
resided.
JK Rowling also lived and attended school near to the
Forest of Dean, just to the south-west, in Tutshill near Chepstow, and may have
visited local places where the Vaughan and Price coat of arms appeared, namely
the ‘snake entwined around a boy’s neck’, which any person would think rather
unusual, with branches of the Vaughans living in and around the Forest of Dean,
and also just over the border in Wales.
And if staying at the Crewe Arms Hotel overnight,
travelling via train, noticed the unusual coat of arms, and made the link
between Crewe, and a place she was very familiar of, which helped her with the
inspiration for the Houses of Hogwarts.
The story of the heraldic ‘snake entwined around a
boy’s neck’ comes from a number of legends: one legend that it represented the
recording of what happened to a Welsh infant prince, who whilst sat in a
garden, a poisonous adder wrapped around his neck, and when his nurse came
back, the infant killed the snake. That infant grew up to be a great warrior
king, Moreiddig Warwyn, and adopted his childhood experience, for his coat of
arms; another legend is that the infant was a prince, who was born with his umbilical
cord around his neck, and survived; another legend that an infant was born with
a birthmark which resembled a snake around his neck; and another, that it
represented three Anglo-Saxon children who were strangled or beheaded by the
British. (The Vaughan Family Crest: No, We're Not Really from
Slytherin, Saturday, May 7, 2011, (http://www.moderatebutpassionate.com/2011/05/vaughan-family-crest-no-were-not-really.html).
* * *
* * * *
A Link with the Hogwarts Express?
Another link with Crewe is the Hogwarts Express,
the train which Harry Potter, and his friends, aboard to make their way to and
fro from Hogwarts.
We are told that there had been a problem of how to
transport children to and from Hogwarts for a long time, according to Potter
lore, because a daring and controversial decision was taken in 1827 by Ottaline
Gambol, who was the Minister for Magic, and was intrigued by the technology of
the Muggles, especially their steam locomotives, as a great alternative to
Portkeys or unregulated travel to Hogwarts. So Ottaline had her eyes on a steam
locomotive for the Hogwarts Express, which was originally built by Muggle
engineers possibly at Crewe, in the early to mid 19th century. To
hide her acquisition and its use of the steam locomotive, and the whole train,
from the world of Muggles, in 1830 a large scale operation with the aid of 167
Memory Charms were used to conceal the acquisition of the steam train. There
was some opposition from pure-blood families who did not want to use Muggle
technology, but this was put down by the Ministry of Magic, with the argument
that, if students did not use the train to go to and from school, they would
not attend the school at all.
According to the Official Wizarding World Website,
written by J. K. Rowling, we are told of the origin of the Hogwarts Express
that: “A daring and controversial
solution to the thorny problem [of transporting students to Hogwarts] was
finally suggested by Minister for Magic Ottaline Gambol, who was much intrigued
by Muggle inventions and saw the potential in trains. Where exactly the Hogwarts
Express came from has never been conclusively proven, although it is a fact
that there are secret records at the Ministry of Magic detailing a mass
operation involving one hundred and sixty-seven Memory Charms and the largest
mass Concealment Charm performed in Britain. The morning after these alleged
crimes, a gleaming scarlet steam engine and carriages astounded the villagers
of Hogsmeade (who had also not realised they had a railway station), while
several bemused Muggles railway workers down in Crewe spent the rest of the
year grappling with the uncomfortable feeling that they had mislaid something
important.”
Together with the Hogwarts Express Steam Locomotive
being possibly built by the Muggle railway engineer workers of Crewe, we are
also told that to publicize the fourth book,
‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, on 8th July 2000, “a special train named Hogwarts
Express was organised by
Bloomsbury [the publisher], and run from King's
Cross to Perth, carrying J.K. Rowling, a
consignment of books for her to sign and sell, also representatives of
Bloomsbury and the press. The book was launched on 8 July 2000, on
platform 1 at King's Cross – which had been given "Platform 9 3⁄4" signs for the
occasion – following which the train departed. En route it called at Didcot Railway Centre, Kidderminster, the Severn Valley Railway, Crewe (overnight stop), Manchester, Bradford, York, the National Railway Museum (overnight stop), Newcastle, Edinburgh, arriving at Perth on 11
July.”
JK Rowling was aboard the train on its publicity
journey, so she could sign the many books bought by her adoring fans en-route.
This special publicity train recreated the journey
that all Hogwarts students take, and even Platform 1 at King’s Cross, where the
journey began, was renamed, 9¾’s.
Again this adds weight to JK Rowling staying
overnight at some point in her life, or on numerous occasions, at Crewe, whilst
travelling by train, and gives the strong possibility of her staying overnight
at the ‘Crewe Arms Hotel’, situated in front of Crewe Railway Station (and
gaining inspiration for the world of Harry Potter), with the Hogwarts Express,
in real life, stopping overnight at Crewe, too.
* * *
* * * *
The Gryffindor?
Not only do we have the strong possibility that JK
Rowling gained some of her inspiration for the Houses of Hogwarts, from the
Crewe coat of arms, situated upon the marble fireplace in the Crewe Arms
Hotel’s Entrance Hall, whilst staying overnight at the Hotel, whilst travelling
by train, but we also have the link of the town of Crewe, to the construction
of the Hogwarts Express steam locomotive, but even further still, we have a
Gryffindor, or rather a ‘Griffin’s Door’ located at the Crewe Arms Hotel.
And even further, this blocked up by brick doorway,
either or both may have served as:-
·
the inspiration for the magical brick walled
doorway which Harry Potter and his fellow students pass through, to get to
Platform 9¾’s in order to board the Hogwarts Express;
·
and/or the inspiration for the hidden street, where
in the Muggle streets of London, inside a pub, that none of the Muggles seem to
be able to see, and in a courtyard at the back of the pub, where if the bricks
are tapped in the right order, an entrance opens up to Diagon Alley, a magical
street in London.
The original front entrance to the Crewe Arms Hotel
is located to the left of the front elevation of the building, down a number of
steps descending from the road, in front of the Railway Station.
This doorway has been bricked up, and is no longer
an accessible doorway to the hotel, and instead, visitors to the hotel, coming
from the railway station, must wonder for a moment, how do you get into the
hotel, especially if lugging suitcases, climbing steps up to the roadway,
crossing the busy road, and then more steps down to the hotel?
The current entrance is to the right of this
blocked up entrance, facing along the building to the right, meaning you have
to walk around the porch extension, until you see the modern main entrance.
This may have mystified JK Rowling if she stayed at
the Crewe Arms for a moment or two, especially if it was late in the evening,
and she needed to stay until she could carry upon her journey, the next
morning!
Even further to it being a bricked up doorway, only
being a ghost or using some form of magic would allow you to pass through, the
doorway is also surmounted by another coat of arms of the Crewe Family.
The Coat of Arms of the
Barons of Crewe
upon the Old Entrance to the Crewe Arms Hotel
The Baronial Coat of Arms above the Old Entrance to the Crewe Arms Hotel
consists of a Quartered Shield with:-
Top Left and Bottom Right: A
Lion Rampant
This coat of arms represents the basic arms of the
Crewe Family, namely ‘Azure a lion rampant Argent’. That is ‘an erect silver
lion, upon a blue background’. The Silver Lion Rampant is often known in the
area as the ‘White Lion’ of the Crewes.
Top Right and Bottom Left: A
Lion Passant on a Cross Fleury
This coat of arms represents the Offley Family of
Madeley, who gained the seat of the Crewes, after Ann Crewe, the only daughter
and heir of John Crewe (1624-1684), had married John Offley (1649-1711), after
his son, John Offley, and the rest of his children changed their name to Crewe,
in 1708, and deleted parts of their original coat of arms, namely, the four
Cornish cloughs Sable, beaked and legged Gules, and which coat of arms became
the coat of arms of the Barons of Crewe of Crewe, and is ‘Argent, on a cross
fleury Azure, a lion passant guardant Or’. That is ‘a walking gold lion, facing
the viewer, on a blue cross adorned at the ends with flowers, on a silver
background’.
The Shield is surmounted by a baronial coronet,
topped with the Crewe Family Crest, which is an erect lion’s gamb or paw. That
is, the crest is ‘out of a ducal coronet a lion’s paw erect Argent’, i.e. ‘out
of a duke’s coronet an erect silver lion’s gamb’.
The quartered shield and its crest are supported on
the left by a lion rampant, and on the right, by a griffin sergeant [rampant
for a griffin].
A Griffin was a mythological beast which has: the
body, hind legs, and tail, of a lion; with the head, ears, wings, and
foreclaws, of an eagle.
With the Latin Motto ‘Sequor Nec Inferior’ beneath, which means ‘I follow but am not inferior’.
* * *
* * * *
So the coat of arms above the bricked up doorway, has:
a lion rampart to its left; and a Griffin to its top right; with the foreclaws
of a lion; possibly alluding to: the erect lion of the House of Gryffindor; the
Griffin also of the House of Gryffindor; and the eagle’s claws, to the House of
Ravenclaw; in the world of Harry Potter.
* * *
* * * *
So
therefore a magical bricked up or blocked doorway: like Harry Potter encounters
to get to Platform 9¾’s; or the magical Diagon Alley; and protected by a
magical Griffin: like the House of Gryffindor; Harry is finally chosen by the
Hogwarts Sorting Hat; and therefore an actual magical ‘Griffin’s Door’: giving
the strong possibility that this original doorway to the Crewe Arms Hotel, was
the inspiration for the Hogwarts House of Gryffindor, and the symbol of the
House, being a Lion Rampant, the symbol of the Crewe Family!
The Blocked Up Gryffindor or
the Old Entrance to the Crewe Arms Hotel
* * *
* * * *
The Crewe Arms Hotel: Some History
The Crewe Arms Hotel was originally
built in 1837, by the Grand Junction Railway, and then rebuilt in 1880, to
serve passengers using the next door Railway Station. In 1846 it became the
property of the London and North Western Railway, and by 1922, it was owned by
the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
It was one of the first railway
hotels built in Britain. It even had an entrance opening up onto the platforms
of the railway station.
* * *
* * * *
Bibliography:
Discovering
Heraldry, Jacqueline Fearn, 2006.
An Interpretation
of the Heraldry at Crewe Hall, Tony Bostock, 2018.
The
Vaughan Family Crest: No, We're Not Really from Slytherin, Saturday, May 7, 2011 (http://www.moderatebutpassionate.com/2011/05/vaughan-family-crest-no-were-not-really.html).
Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire, Wikipedia Entry
Crewe Arms Hotel,
Wikipedia Entry
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crewe_Arms_Hotel). 
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