Half man / half-lion

Stafford holds many mysteries for the curious observer like me (and they can’t be solved by Google, neither). This frieze on a building in the town-centre in the town is destined to be (I suspect) forever a puzzle. 
What does this half-man/half-lion figure represent? There’s no particular clue on the building itself.
Are there any local social historians out there who might decipher this riddle?