On the Origin of the Manchester and Salford Bee: Radical Reform, a Heavy Tax on Food and a Very Strange Tory

Please see my new edit of this article finished in 2023 and linked here. It has more pictures and a little more information added. Most importantly, a more logical arrangement of chapters.

A Swarm of Golden Space Bees can't find Manchester because it is raining.

A Swarm of Golden Space Bees can't find Manchester because it is raining.
or
A terrestrial globe semée of bees volant, all proper.
Totally ©-free. Use as you like. If you care give me credit.

This is my interpretation of the top of the crest of the coat of arms of Manchester Council, made a little more realistic than the usual stylised heraldic cartoons such as that at the bottom of this page. I had a desire to know what it would look like done properly and realised the only way I was going to get to see it was to do it myself.

More after the break.