IT WAS a ceremony born out of centuries of history and dating from the days of knights of old.

The Garter Principal King of Arms Thomas Woodcock in full uniform presented the Letters Patent granting a coat of arms to the county's oldest society.

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History started in 1852 and has 480 members.

The presentation to the society's patron Lord Petre was before 140 members and guests, appropriately at his historic sixteenth century home Ingatestone Hall.

President Mr Martin Stuch field said: " We are the oldest and the most prestigious of the county society's and I felt we needed some recognition of the fact.

"We wanted to put Essex in the forefront from a national point of view and make historians and members realise that we have a society that we should be justly proud of."

The granting of the coat of arms follows a long process that involves petitioning the College of Arms. It will be used to provide instant recognition in all aspects of the society's work.

The whole process costs more than £10,000, with the unique work paid for by a gift from a member,

The coat of arms maintains an instant recognition to the county served by the society.

It shows the seaxes or long knives from the Essex coat of arms but in this case these are upright. On the crest there is a mythical griffin grasping a seax with its foreclaws on a Roman helmet similar to a discovery in Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town.

The motto translated from the Latin is " A love of Essex leads me".