The original seal or crest of Llantrisant Town Trust was designed by Robert Drane of Cardiff.

It was created to represent the arms of Consul, De Clare and Despenser, the three Norman families whose history was so closely connected with the Borough.

The shield on the left is of Despenser. In the centre is De Clare and on the right being Robert Consul.

The Mace is shown inverted to indicate the dissolution of the ancient corporation.

The  quotation from Matthew V and IV being: “ A cite that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”

The present crest was altered at the time of the 125th anniversary of the Town Trust.

It removed the questionable crest of Consul because there is little evidence of his exact involvement in the development of Llantrisant. Instead it was replaced with that of the Earl of Pembroke who presented the Mace to the Corporation in 1633.

Freemen

Robert Drane

llantrisant
 

Robert Drane was a chemist and close friend of Llantrisant Town Trust Clerk Evan John of Castle House.

He was born on 21 August 1833 in Norfolk, the son of independent minister of the Church of Christ Robert Drane senior and Frances Anna Rudkin. He was the eldest of seven children.

Robert Drane junior trained as a chemist, and eventually took up a post in Cardiff, before opening his own shop in Bute Street in 1858. The business moved to Queen Street in 1868, and he lived above the shop.

He was a keen antiquarian and his diaries, maintained from 1881 to his death in 1914 an uncensored opinion on his everyday encounters from his shop assistants to members of Cardiff’s high society and visiting notables like Winston Churchill.

He recorded incidents like a fire at Cardiff Castle in a banquet in 1891 when the Marquis of Bute refused to identify the most valuable items for fear “some poor fellow” would injure himself rescuing them.

He also gave impressions of the first motor car, thoughts on the channel tunnel in 1882 and the introduction of Christmas cards which he thought would never catch on.

He founded the Cardiff Naturalist Society, published a well-known paper entitled The Hare in Captivity, and is credited with discovering the Skomer Vole.

His antiquarian interests led to an important collection of old Worcester pottery, and a role as honorary curator of the Cardiff Museum. Robert junior died in 1914 and a plaque was placed on the wall of his shop in Queen Street