Group hoping to establish county's own flag

Edward Keene with the flag Edward Keene with the flag

THIS is the flag that could become Oxfordshire’s own. A campaign group is hoping to give Oxfordshire its own flag and has drawn up the “St Frideswide cross” as a potential design.

Edward Keene, chairman of the Oxfordshire Association, said: “A number of counties have a flag and increasingly there is an interest in getting them for those places which don’t. Flags promote solidarity and give people something to unite around.”

The flag is named after the patron saint of Oxford. Currently 30 counties around the UK have their own flags, including Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire.

But under rules set out by the Flag Institute the proposed standard could only become the flag of the historic county of Oxfordshire, and that excludes the Vale of the White Horse, which joined Oxfordshire in 1974.

There are two ways for a flag to become a county’s official one – either by public vote or by its widespread approval by bodies in the county. 

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Comments(5)

Darkforbid says...
10:15am Mon 29 Oct 12

What? Princess runs away... equals saint?

Dilligaf2010 says...
10:40am Mon 29 Oct 12

Well I suppose it's one way to get your picture in the paper, why would Oxfordshire need a flag?

snert says...
11:14am Mon 29 Oct 12

Looking at this flag, the Canton, top left colour, is green and that is the hoist side. Why then does the Department for Communicties and Local Government show the flag flying upside down?

http://oxfordshire-a
ssociation.org.uk/in
dex.php?page=county_
flag

Has anyone pointed this out to them?

Flying a flag upside down is a sign of distress. Are they trying to tell us something?

xjohnx says...
8:52am Tue 30 Oct 12

It used to be the Union Flag. Why do these people want to focus on differances all the time.

How about recognising that we are all one nation. Black, white, Moslem, Jew, Christion, Athiest. From Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Devon, Wales, Northern ireland, Scotland (for the moment) etc.

snert says...
9:21am Tue 30 Oct 12

You might as well say lets get rid of all flags and have a single world flag. Then what would be the point of it at all?

National flags are a symbol of identity and affiliation to a country. There are plenty of flags for religious purposes as well. The Union Flag is a flag for the United Kingdom. Each county in England exists for the purposes of adminstrative, geographical and political demarcation. Some counties have a unique feature or history linked to them or they have a patron saint. Many counties like to have a flag to distinguish them from others, not to focus on differences. It allows a person from one county to show an affiliation to others in that county and share a common ground.

I don't see why Oxfordshire shouldn't celebrate itself with a flag as a symbol of the county. I'm proud to live in Oxfordshire so a flag is a nice thing to have in that case, for example, should a bumper sticker become available, I'd put it on my car to show that I'm from Oxfordshire. People of Cornwall have been famously doing that for decades. If they happen to be away from Cornwall and they see another car with the same sticker, they may feel compelled to introdcue themselves and they'd immediately have a common ground.

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