Walchelin de Ferriers

The cognizance or proto-heraldic device of the family was a horse-shoe, a play on the Latin word ferrarius meaning a "worker in iron" (ferrum) thus a black-smith or farrier.

Thus originated the custom, still current today, of the affixing of ceremonial horse-shoes on the walls of the great hall of Oakham Castle to commemorate the visit of a peer or royal.

After the start of the age of heraldry (circa 1200-1215), branches of the Ferrers family adopted horse-shoes as charges in their coats of arms.

After the conclusion of the siege, King Richard and Hugh III of Burgundy marched their forces south to the city of Jaffa.

Richard had made Walchelin a commander of one of the elite bodies of knights, according to the chronicle attributed to Geoffrey de Vinsauf.

Hugh had left England and the care of Lechlade and Oakham went to his sister, Isabella, who was married to Roger de Mortimer of Wigmore.