Sleeping Beauty Castle: The Disney Crest

On the front of the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle above the entrance arch is what appears to be a family crest. Depending upon which story you hear, it is either the Disney family crest or something that Walt made up. Thanks to an article sent by faithful Daveland reader SJR, I feel like there is a legitimate backstory which explains it. For guests who crossed the drawbridge into Fantasyland on July 18, 1955 (when the below photo was snapped), they saw zilcho. No Disney family crest.



 Keep moving folks, nothing to see here. Just a flat slab. 



That’s how the front of the castle looked until July 1965. This photo from April 1965 is the last photo in my collection that shows the bare slab, just waiting for something to spice it up!



The source for the article I read was on the BBC website. Reporter Colin Paterson went to Norton Disney, Lincolnshire to meet with Disney historian Sebastien Durand at St Peter's Church, a building that dates back to the 11th Century. “This is the oldest place in England where you can find a trace of Disney, of Walt Disney’s history and his family tree and even his coat of arms,” the French Disney expert explained. In the summer of 1949, Walt was in the UK supervising the filming of a live action “Treasure Island” (1950) when his daughters, Diane and Sharon, convinced him and his wife Lillian to spend a few days in Scotland. He agreed, but only if they could make a detour on the way. Edited from the article:

“He heard there was a village named after Disney,” says Durand. “He was intrigued as he only knew that his great-grandfather was Irish. He didn’t know his history earlier than that.…He was from a rural village in America. He grew up in Marceline, Missouri - so when he was here, he met with stockmen and could discuss with them about raising pigs, because that’s what he did as a child. He connected with the people here and connected with his own history here.” It was in St Peter’s Church that Walt Disney made his most significant discovery. The minister at the time, Rev RK Roper, explained to the animator how the De Isignys had come over from France to England with William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and had settled in the area. Over centuries, the name had changed to d’Isigny, then D’Iseny, eventually becoming Disney around the 13th or 14th Centuries. Walt also saw the rather grand 14th Century tomb of Sir William d’Isney on which there was the family crest, with three lions facing left, the symbol of Normandy. It clearly made an impression. In 1965, for the 10th anniversary of the Disneyland theme park in California, Walt decided he wanted to add a coat of arms to Sleeping Beauty’s castle. He was asked if there was a Disney crest. “He said, ‘Yes, I remember I saw it in Norton Disney in 1949 when I was in England filming Treasure Island. I went to that little town and saw the coat of arms,’” Durand explains. “So they took photographs of it and they reproduced it on the castle in Anaheim, California, and since then it is on every Disney castle in all Disney parks. It even appears now at the beginning of every Disney movie.” What proof is there that Walt Disney really is related to the Disneys of Norton Disney? “You can never be totally sure,” Durand says, “because nobody can trace a direct history over 1,000 years except if he is from a royal family. We know that the Disney name began in France, continued in England and went to Ireland and then to America, so obviously all people who share that name Disney, including Walt Disney, share that same history.  The name comes from here. The exact possibility that Walt Disney is related to that is, I would say, 99%.” One other rather interesting historical Disney link, which is kept in the Lincolnshire Archives, can be seen in a charter signed in 1386. It shows that the name of the estate of the Disney family was Disnayland, albeit with an A. Durand cannot hide his glee. “So the first appearance of the name Disneyland is not in California at the park or at Disneyland Paris, but here in Lincolnshire more than 600 years ago.” When Walt visited in 1949, he presented the village with three prints of Disney characters, which he kept on him at all times in case of autograph hunters. For the company’s 100th anniversary, rather more thought has gone into a gift from Disney to the village. Durand handed over a specially commissioned picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse walking through Norton Disney, drawn by Disney illustrator Kim Raymond.

I was glad to finally have what appears to be the story behind the coat of arms on the castle, but it still brings up some unanswered questions. Clearly, there was an intention to put an insignia of some kind on the Sleeping Beauty Castle when it was built in 1955. Why did it take ten years? Walt’s trip pre-dated the design and construction by approximately 5-6 years, so it’s not like he wasn’t aware of what the coat of arms looked like. Below is a photo from the 10th anniversary celebration of Disneyland, July 1965.



Note that the crest is still missing. I can only assume that this was a staged photo taken well in advance of any possible unveiling ceremony…if there was one.



Here’s a 3D shot of the castle from August 27, 1965, WITH the coat of arms finally installed.



This photo that I took in 2012 shows the lions adorning the banners along the castle entryway:



Another genuine FauxD© image I snapped in 2012:



A closeup of a banner from 2009:



But that’s not the end of my questions. In this 1956 image showing the back of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, you can clearly see that there are 2 insignias above the arches as well as 3 unadorned spaces on the balcony above:





…and in this June 1957 photo:



Those three blank crests stayed that way into the 1980s:





The first shot I have in my collection showing crests on the back of the castle is from January 2003 (below). Yes, I have a huge void in my collection from the 1980s until 2000. My obsessions are limited by my bank account.



From 2012:



…and a closeup from 2010:



I have no idea where any of the crests/insignias on the back of the castle came from. On another website that attempted to explain the family crest origin, someone left a comment that their grandfather “painted” the three insignias on the back of the castle, and that the crest on the left with the fleur de lis pattern is THEIR family insignia. Since those didn’t seem to exist until after 1980, that story seems a little muddled.

There’s always some mystery out there to be solved!

See more photos at my main website.