The current Armorial Bearings were granted to the Borough of Darlington following local government re-organisation in 1974, and incorporates elements of the Arms of both the old County Borough and the former Rural District Council, each absorbed into the Borough of Darlington as it is now known.
The Mace, supported by the two lions in the crest, is the emblem of the authority while the mound surrounded by a mural coronet beneath them is a symbol of municipal government.
Much of the history and character of Darlington can be deduced from its Coat-of-Arms granted by the King of Arms (Heralds) and recorded in the College of Arms. Each part of the Coat-of-Arms tells a story with 'Locomotion and St. Cuthbert's Cross playing major parts in its design.
Locomotion is a representation of George Stephenson's engine, which drew the first passenger train in the world on 25th September 1825 on the Stockton and Darlington line. It is permanently on view at the North Road Railway Museum in Darlington. The Darlington and Stockton Railways represented by the two lines across the shield enclosing a wave symbolising the River Tees. St. Cuthbert's Cross commemorates the legend that when the monks fled from the Danes at Lindisfarne, where the Saint was buried they carried his body with them and eventually came to Darlington where, according to tradition, an early Saxon Church was built on the spot where the body rested. St. Cuthbert became the Patron Saint of Darlington and the Parish Church, adjacent to the Town Hall, erected on the same site is named after him.
The bull's head and wheat sheaf represent Darlington's history as an agricultural market town and as the area where the early pioneering experiments on the breeding of shorthorn cattle took place, with special reference to the famous 'comet' of Ketton from which the breed developed.
The supporters are the golden-crowned lion, commemorating the present Queen's visit to Darlington in 1967 (the centenary of the granting of the Royal Charter), and the Wyvern with the falchion referring to the local legend of the slaying of the 'Sockburn Worm' by Sir John Conyers.
The motto for Darlington, 'Optima Petamus', means 'Let us Seek the Best'.
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