Staffordshire's Flag

This is a copy of an email received from Staffordshire Heritage Group:

Within the next couple of days, Staffordshire County Council wish to register its banner of arms as the county flag of Staffordshire with the British Flag Institute. Some will believe this design is already the Staffordshire Flag as it is sold as this by commercial outlets, however this is untrue. We strongly believe that this is not a suitable county flag for Staffordshire at all for the following points...

•The banner of the Council features a lion which represents authority (The Council!), lions are far from unique on flags across Europe , and the lion does not represent the county in any way, shape or form. A county flag is there to represent the people of the county, not an authority.

•The world-famous Stafford Knot is clearly the symbol most associated with Staffordshire, however on the banner of the Council, the Stafford Knot is reduced to a tiny element, we think this is very wrong!!! The Stafford Knot should of course sit proudly centre stage on any county flag of Staffordshire!

•Finally, County flags in the UK represent the traditional counties. Staffordshire County Council administer only some 40% of the total population of Staffordshire, excluding some of the county's most major towns and cities, including Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton!

We believe the simple, bold and ancient Stafford Chevron design, which dates back to 1611, should become the county's flag which can be proudly displayed across all Staffordshire....

This proposal is simple, bold, historic, doesn't represent authority. Most importantly the symbol of the county, The Stafford Knot, sits centre-stage on the flag, and boldly proclaims Staffordshire's heritage. It has all the makings of the perfect county flag.

The information panels attached, below, display our opinions on the County Council's banner further, and the reasons why our traditional proposal makes for a much more suitable county flag for Staffordshire.

Please contact the Flag Institute at chiefvexillologist@flaginstitute.org with communities@flaginstitute.org urging them not to register the Council's Banner as the county flag, and to consider our proposal, the Stafford Chevron, instead. Unfortunately time is not on our side.

Thank you once again,
Brady Ells

www.facebook.com/StaffordshireChevron

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