As with many county emblems, the Surrey checks originated with local aristocracy – in this case the de Warenne family, themselves originally from Normandy. This was the first dynasty to hold the Earldom of Surrey after its creation by William I in 1088AD. The de … Continue reading
» 2012 » January
Pembrokeshire
The Pembrokeshire flag was conceived in 1974 by local councillors Peter Stock, Dewi Pritchard, Jim Brock and Marjorie Jacobs, when the accursed local government act appeared to have wiped the county from the map. The flag was defiantly designed and raised to announce that the … Continue reading
Yorkshire
Yorkshire’s flag was promoted by the Yorkshire Ridings Society for several years as the county flag, having first appeared in the 1960s. It was registered by the Flag Institute on 29 July 2008 at the request of the Yorkshire Ridings Society. The White Rose has … Continue reading
Orkney
Orkney’s flag received was approved in 2007. For a few decades a flag for Orkney named the The Cross of Saint Magnus, using the colours of the Scottish royal standard in Scandinavian form, a red offset cross on a yellow field, was used. This was ruled … Continue reading
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire’s flag was conceived by Jason Saber as an adaptation of the reputed arms of the Ancient British Kingdom of Gwent, the area of which forms much of the county of Monmouthshire. The Gwent arms are also subsumed in the ecclesiastical arms used by the … Continue reading
Shropshire
The design is a banner of the county council arms which were awarded in 1895. The leopards faces, fondly referred to as loggerheads locally, are a traditional emblem for Shropshire (also known as Salop) and have historically evolved from the lions heads on the Shrewsbury … Continue reading
Nottinghamshire
The flag of Nottinghamshire was the winning entry in a 2011 competition initiated by the local BBC Radio station under the auspices of the Flag Institute. The flag incorporates St George’s cross fimbriated in white, on a dark green background, with at its centre a … Continue reading
Dorset
After a hard struggle, popular opinion finally convinced the local council in Dorset to organise a flag competition. The winning design conceived by Stephen Coombes and Dave White,had been promoted for some time before the council, having been initially opposed to the idea of a … Continue reading
Northumberland
Although not registered as a “traditional” design, Northumberland’s flag is of ancient origin and in essence is certainly part of a local tradition, of some ancient standing. The Venerable Bede, England’s first historian, records a banner of purple and gold which hung over the tomb of St Oswald, … Continue reading