Flag of Berkshire: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox flag
{{Infobox flag
| Name = Berkshire
| Name = Berkshire
| Article =  
| Article =
| Type =  
| Type =
| Image = ABC Berkshire.png
| Image = Berkshire.svg
| Nickname =  
| Nickname =
| Morenicks =  
| Morenicks =
| Use =  
| Use =
| Symbol =  
| Symbol =
| Proportion = 3:5
| Proportion = 3:5
| Adoption = Not yet adopted
| Adoption = 27 February 2017
| Design =  
| Design =
| Designer =  
| Designer =
}}
}}
[[File:BerkshireBrit5.PNG|thumb|220px|Berkshire]]
[[File:Berkshire Brit Isles Sect 5.svg|thumb|250px|Berkshire]]
[[File:Berkshire_flag.svg|thumb|David Nash Ford proposal]]
 
The '''Berkshire flag''' is the flag of the [[Berkshire|county of Berks]]. It has not yet been registered with the [[Flag Institute]].<ref name="ABC">{{cite web|url=http://www.abcounties.co.uk/counties/county-flags/county-flag-proposals?showall=1|author=Association of British Counties|title=County flag proposals|accessdate=13 January 2012}}</ref>


The '''Berkshire flag''' is the flag of the [[Berkshire|county of Berks]], registered with the [[Flag Institute]] on 27 February 2017. This followed declarations of support from twenty-four local organisations, backed by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, James Puxley. The flag features the traditional hart (stag) and oak theme associated with the county for several centuries, which appears on the badges, emblems and logos of a large number of county organisations.
The hart and oak refer generally to the forestlands of Berkshire and specifically to the legend of a late 14th century royal huntsman named Herne The Hunter. Legend has it that after various nefarious deeds by his jealous rivals, this one time favourite of the king was dismissed from royal service and distraught, he hanged himself from an oak tree which was then struck by lightning. The hart is “one of the manifestations of his restless spirit” and, according to Michael Drayton’s poem of 1627, a banner with this badge, or something very like it, was carried by the men of Berkshire at the Battle of Agincourt “Barkshire a Stag, vnder an Oake that stood,”.
Research conducted by Brady Ells, located and identified a seal used by the former Berkshire Council before its formal acquisition of arms in 1947, which depicted the hart and oak emblem, in both monochrome and coloured versions. The flag is fashioned from this original seal.
__TOC__
__TOC__
==Design==  
==Design==
 
This current proposal, created by Michael Garber, retains the locally-meaningful colours and symbols featured in an original design created by Berkshire historian David Nash Ford - see below. As in the Nash Ford flag this design
In the early twentieth century, the former Berkshire Council made use of a coloured seal depicting the emblem of a hart and oak tree, long associated associated with the county where a naturally brown stag stands under a similarly naturally coloured, oak tree, with leaves and surrounding grass, set against a field of gold. Possibly the golden colour is a reference to Berkshire’s status as a “Royal County”, owing to the presence there of the principal royal residence, Windsor Castle there.
portrays a stag and oak tree, a familiar theme in the county, used previously by the former county council as the crest of its coat of arms. This symbol is held generally to refer to the forestlands of the county and specifically to the legend of Herne the Hunter, a 14th-century royal huntsman. The white hart is described as one of the manifestations of his restless spirit. The colours of gold, white and blue had appeared in the old county council arms
and were additionally seen to represent the River Thames and the county's chalk hills.
The notion of deploying the county’s long-associated emblem as a flag had first been mooted by David Nash Ford of the Royal Berkshire History website, who created a white and blue bicolour bearing a golden silhouette of hart and oak across the two bands
 
The original Nash Ford design design has been deemed as an unsuccessful flag because the gold charge on white breaks the rule of tincture, by which two lighter colours do not contrast well and thus the gold charge loses visibility from any distance. It has also been deemed as confusing because the curved form of the oak tree which resembles a letter "C", thereby leads some people to think it represents a county name also beginning with "C".
==Gallery==
 
<gallery>
The Garber proposal thus aims to retain all the design crietria of the orginal proposal in a more effective arrangement and was completed after extensive consultation with the Flag Institute.
File:Berkshire_County_Council_seal.png|Berkshire Council arms
 
File:Berkshire_flag.svg|David Nash Ford proposal
==References==
</gallery>
<references/>
 
{{County flag proposals|Berkshire}}


{{County flags of the United Kingdom|Berkshire}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag of Berkshire}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag of Berkshire}}
[[Category:Berkshire]]
[[Category:Berkshire]]

Latest revision as of 16:45, 4 February 2019

Flag of Berkshire
Proportion 3:5
Adopted 27 February 2017
Berkshire

The Berkshire flag is the flag of the county of Berks, registered with the Flag Institute on 27 February 2017. This followed declarations of support from twenty-four local organisations, backed by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, James Puxley. The flag features the traditional hart (stag) and oak theme associated with the county for several centuries, which appears on the badges, emblems and logos of a large number of county organisations.

The hart and oak refer generally to the forestlands of Berkshire and specifically to the legend of a late 14th century royal huntsman named Herne The Hunter. Legend has it that after various nefarious deeds by his jealous rivals, this one time favourite of the king was dismissed from royal service and distraught, he hanged himself from an oak tree which was then struck by lightning. The hart is “one of the manifestations of his restless spirit” and, according to Michael Drayton’s poem of 1627, a banner with this badge, or something very like it, was carried by the men of Berkshire at the Battle of Agincourt “Barkshire a Stag, vnder an Oake that stood,”.

Research conducted by Brady Ells, located and identified a seal used by the former Berkshire Council before its formal acquisition of arms in 1947, which depicted the hart and oak emblem, in both monochrome and coloured versions. The flag is fashioned from this original seal.

Design

In the early twentieth century, the former Berkshire Council made use of a coloured seal depicting the emblem of a hart and oak tree, long associated associated with the county where a naturally brown stag stands under a similarly naturally coloured, oak tree, with leaves and surrounding grass, set against a field of gold. Possibly the golden colour is a reference to Berkshire’s status as a “Royal County”, owing to the presence there of the principal royal residence, Windsor Castle there.

The notion of deploying the county’s long-associated emblem as a flag had first been mooted by David Nash Ford of the Royal Berkshire History website, who created a white and blue bicolour bearing a golden silhouette of hart and oak across the two bands

Gallery

County flags of the United Kingdom

Aberdeenshire • Anglesey • Banffshire • Bedfordshire • Berkshire • Berwickshire • Buckinghamshire • Caernarfonshire • Caithness • Cambridgeshire • Cheshire • Cornwall • Cumberland • Derbyshire • Devon • Dorset • Durham • East Lothian • Essex • Flintshire • Glamorgan • Gloucestershire • Hampshire • Herefordshire • Hertfordshire • Huntingdonshire • Kent • Kirkcudbrightshire • Lancashire • Leicestershire • Lincolnshire • Merionethshire • Middlesex • Monmouthshire • Morayshire • Norfolk • Northamptonshire • Northumberland • Nottinghamshire • Orkney • Oxfordshire • Pembrokeshire • Rutland • Shetland • Shropshire • Somerset • Staffordshire • Suffolk • Surrey • Sussex • Sutherland • Warwickshire • Westmorland • Wiltshire • Worcestershire • Yorkshire