{"id":1356,"date":"2014-01-28T13:50:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T13:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flags.abcounties.com\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2024-07-31T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T15:51:09","slug":"staffordshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/abcounties.com\/flags\/2014\/01\/28\/staffordshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Staffordshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Staffordshire\"<\/a>\"STAFFMAP\"<\/p>\n

Staffordshire\u00a0is associated with an emblem of some antiquity, the Stafford Knot<\/p>\n

\"STAFFS<\/a><\/p>\n

This anicent local emblem is\u00a0present on an artefact amongst the famous Staffordshire Hoard, unearthed in July 2009, suggesting a link with the county of some twelve hundred years!<\/p>\n

\"Staffordshire<\/a><\/p>\n

Another\u00a0early example of the knot is on the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon\u00a0stone cross located in the churchyard of Saint Peter Ad Vincula (Stoke Minster)<\/p>\n

\"churchstaffs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are a number of stories relating to its origin.<\/p>\n

The knot was said to symbolically bind three different local areas which joined to form what is now known as Staffordshire when Ethelfleda, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great,<\/p>\n

\"Ethel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

who defended a stronghold at Stafford, symbolically took off her girdle and said to the local lords: \u201cWith this girdle, I bind us all as one\u201d, and the three areas became Staffordshire. The anniversary of this event was celebrated in 1913, a thousand years after it was said to have happened.<\/p>\n

Another theory holds that the Knot forms the shape of a double \u2018S\u2019 representing \u2019\u2019Stafford-Shire\u2019\u2019. There is also a popular notion that the Knot originated when a Stafford County Sherriff invented it to hang three criminals at the same time. He only had one piece of rope but could not just hang one of the criminals as it would be unfair to the other two to give precedence to only one of the condemned! He therefore tied his single rope into three loops and dispatched of all three criminals at the same time.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Stafford Knot later appeared\u00a0on the seal of Joan Stafford, Lady of Wake, who died childless in 1443.\u00a0A descendant of Hereward the Wake, she may have inherited the device,\u00a0described as\u00a0the \u201cWake Knot\u201d,\u00a0from past generations. This artefact, now in the British Museum,\u00a0passed upon her\u00a0demise\u00a0to her nephew, Humphrey, Earl of Stafford. He adopted\u00a0the knot, henceforward to be known as the Stafford Knot, as his badge, probably just preceding his creation as Duke of Buckingham in 1444 and it appears coloured gold, in abundance on his standard.<\/p>\n

\"Staffs<\/a><\/p>\n

The townsmen of Stafford, “liegemen” of the de Stafford family, also made use of the Stafford Knot badge. As the days of feudalism passed and individual and civic liberties grew, it was gradually adopted by the Citizens, Freemen and Burgesses of the county. Accordingly by 1611 when John Speed published his Atlas of Great Britain, he included a map of the locality<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"staffmap\"<\/a><\/p>\n

which featured the de Stafford family arms, gold with a red chevron\"CHEVRON\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>combined with the family badge,\u00a0a gold Stafford Knot \"KNOT<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"SPEED<\/a><\/p>\n

The knot has since become the ubiquitous symbol for Staffordshire.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In late 2015 Staffordshire County Council released its banner of arms<\/p>\n

\"INSERT<\/a><\/p>\n

for use by the general public and applied to the Flag Institute for registration of the deisgn as the county flag of Staffordshire. Many were unhappy with this proposal because<\/p>\n