England's County Flags EXPLAINED - A Complete Guide
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ม.ค. 2024
- What do the county flags of England mean? Let's take a guided tour to find out from south to north (according to each county's southernmost point), starting in Cornwall and finishing in Northumberland.
Note that this tour covers the historic counties of England and the reference map on the left hand side is that of the country as it was before April 1965.
With thanks to the following reference sources:
britishcountyflags.com/englis...
www.flaginstitute.org/
All footage is my own, and originates from my flagship channel, 4K Explorer, which you can check out here: -- / @4kexplorer
![[MPD직캠] 베이비몬스터 치키타 직캠 4K 'LIKE THAT' (BABYMONSTER CHIQUITA FanCam) | @MCOUNTDOWN_2024.6.13](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/h99J4vWm7Ew/mqdefault.jpg)
It should be emphasised that most of these flags are of very recent invention and although they're all widespread on the Internet, not all of them have found widespread acceptance in their counties. The amount of design and consultation effort that went into some of them was quite low.
For a more historically valid appreciation, one should study the county shields which the flags are mostly based on.
i’m from stroud and i like the gloucestershire flag, it’s nice and light and reflects the colours of the landscape on a summers day
Great video! Interesting about the Worcester black pears; visited not long back and I was told it dated back to Elizabeth I's visit when she ordered a black pear tree to be transported to a royal place. Evidently it goes back further!
Alex, another fun summary by you!!! Thank you. In the US our states have a state bird and a state flower. At least one English county had a county flower on its flag as you noted. Might county flowers and/or birds form another series?
Thanks, that's a good idea. I feel that in England's case though, there might not be much variety as a lot of counties just use roses! And county birds would be great, although I think maybe our pedigree isn't the broadest as we don't get anything bigger than buzzards over here. Not that I'm aware of, at least.
Lovely accent. Really enjoy your videos, Alex. Thanks for all the knowledge! I’m curious, what are your top 3 places to visit in Lincolnshire (besides Lincoln)?
Thanks, and great question! Well besides Lincoln, as you say, I'd recommend Stamford as it's one of the prettiest towns in the country. Then Louth since it's got the tallest medieval non-cathedral spire. And finally Cleethorpes as it's got everything you need in a seaside town, and it's often overlooked in favour of Skegness instead!
@@AlexinGreatBritain Great! Thank you for the recommendations, I’m adding them to my list of places to visit. I’ve been to Lincoln before (and loved it!) and I want to explore more of the region in the future. I’ve had Cleethorpes and also Grimsby on my radar for a while, hope to be able to visit soon, I’ll be watching your walks in the meantime! 😉
Thanks!
Thanks Dianne, very kind indeed! :)
Bedfordshire - Family name of Beauchamps... Maybe a nugget of wrong information I got from when I wore short trousers - but I think it is pronounced... "Beech-hum" -
Many of these flags seem to differ markedly from the 1889 County Councils coats of arms.
Wessex is usually represented by a Wyvern. Just were the Somerset dragon comes from is a bit of a mystery. 'Hengist' and 'Horsa' both mean 'horse'. 'Berk-shire refers to the forest, 'bark', it was covered by. Surely a 'Seax', canting pun on 'Sax-on', is a Sword, not a knife? Oxford is on the confluence of the Thames and Cherwell. Strangely, Cambridge -shire was not part of the Kingdom of East Anglia but of Mercia. Derbys flag may have a Rose - Or/ Gold but that is NOT a 'Tudor Rose' which is a doubled York White and Lancaster Red roses.
Herts, Beds and Bucks are also part of East Anglia, not to mention Northampton. It's been a very long time that has been the case too. Where I live was once England's other Wessex before Mercia took control of it from the Saxons before eventually passing it to East Anglia.
Slight correction: the north and west ridings of Yorkshire do have official flags
You may be right, although North Riding and West Riding don't observe the same boundaries as the post-1974 counties.
that's interesting 👏👏
and Merseyside?
No official flag for Merseyside. Most of the county used to be part of Lancashire.
@@AlexinGreatBritain got it; belonged to Lancashire; in fact 👏
Very interesting video.
But as for the county of Kent, the motto of Invicta that comes from 1066 when William the (illegitimate) came thought the county and the men of the county let him though to London but was told “if you want to go then go but take your army with you or we will kill you all”.
So unlike the rest of the country, Kent was never officially conquered and therefore Invicta (unconquered)
Hope that helps for some.
This is great, thanks! I guess those Jutes didn't mess about.
Gosh, I love the narrator's voice. What regional accent is that?
Haha thanks! I'm from Lincolnshire.
@@AlexinGreatBritainI thought I recognised the accent! Sounds very similar to mine. I'm also a Lincolnshire yellowbelly. Lincoln really is such an underappreciated city
@@ironblu4110 Oh it is indeed!
CGP Grey should rate these flags!
Your video states that "historically" Hampshire included the Isle of Wight. Correct, but this island has been a county in its own right for the last 130 years, and has its own flag, and its own County Council (although the Police are controlled from Winchester). It is the second smallest county in England - the smallest being Rutland.
I was going to say something similar. Although the Island is smaller than Rutland at hightide, and Rutland is smaller at lowtide.
Interesting video :) What about Bristol though? It’s its own county in its own right and I know the coat of arms being from here but can’t say I’ve ever seen a flag
Yeah, no official flag for Bristol as far as I'm aware.
Very interesting thanks, this must have taken a vast amount of research!.
Incidentally Lewes East Sussex is pronounced Loo - is, one of many confusing English place names to pronounce!
I'm suprize you didnt mentioned the metropolitan County of South Yorkshire
It has no official flag though.
I understand why you didn't use the correct term for the "6 subdivisions of Sussex". Its a county full of inuendo
Haha, well observed! The forbidden 'R' word might have got this video demonetised!
The White cross on Black you find in Cornwall isn't the county flag really. it's the flag of the Kingdom of Kernow. :)
3:50 I recently started believing that 4-legged dragons in Heraldry and related iconography either started out as Gryphons or are intended to be a similar blend of Lion and Wyvern vs Eagle
It's just a dragon.
@@JohnyG29 Saying it's "just a dragon" won't get you far when you start trying to decrypt exactly what Dragons and Dragon iconography are. The definition of dragon is pretty darn broad. I'm not saying that it didn't become that or that it didn't possibly always have a dragon element to it, but dragons kind of randomly started getting depicted with an extra 2 limbs at some point and nobody's ever really been sure why - Add to that the fact that many early European depictions of dragons make them look almost beaked and you can see where certain things could get mixed around. Blended animals were very common in the art and mythology of Europe and still are to a point today. How can you say it's "Just a dragon" when you can barely find 2 people in the word that actually AGREE on what a dragon is?