IN your feature regarding the ideas wanted for a coat of arms for Penhill, it says “Local school logos over the years have featured female swans, though there is no evidence that swans ever lived in the area”.

The logos were made up by a combination of a female swan to represent ‘Pen’ (being the proper name for a female swan, and not to represent any past history with swans), then an upside down ’V’ to represent ‘hill’ and finally a book to represent ‘school’.

You also said that Penhill was built between 1952 and 1955, but building continued well after then. I moved to Penhill on December 23, 1955 and a lot of Penhill had not yet been built. (The plasterers were still plastering the walls as we moved in and a lot of the paths were still just sand and sacks to walk on). The nearest shops for the people of Penhill were at Stratton Crossroads as neither Braydon Court nor the valley shops existed at that time.

Good luck to the people of Penhill with their quest for a coat of arms. I grew up there, went to all the Penhill schools and finally Headlands and continued living there until well into adulthood, and the community spirit was always very strong.

LIN SPIERS Speresholt Toothill Swindon