The following is found at the Whalley Abbey webpage at: http://members.aol.com/vicwhalley/ Why three fish? A friend who was checking out this webpage when I first posted it e-mailed me with this comment: "Great website, but strange church that has dead fish hanging up all over it!". Good point! The three fish are the coat of arms of Whalley -originally of the Abbot, now used by the Village, the School, the Church and the Abbey. There are lots of different versions, but the Heraldic description is Azure, three salmon in pale argent, in the mouth of each a crozier, or. Or in plain language.. A blue shield, with three vertical silver salmon, each with a gold crozier in its mouth.