Express & Star

Staffordshire Heritage Group's flag design knot to be missed

Staffordshire Heritage Group has outlined its bid to have its flag officially recognised as the flag of the county.

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In a press conference outside St Mary's Church in Stafford, the group, which are competing against the county council to have its flag officially recognised, dismissed the potential inclusion of a lion on a county flag and talked up the historical significance of the Staffordshire knot.

The design put forward by Staffordshire Heritage Group

The Heritage Group, along with a host of others, wants the county flag to be the traditional red chevron on a field of gold with a golden knot.

But the County Council, who now say they have withdrawn their submission to the Flag Institute, want to include a blue banner and a golden lion running across the top of their design.

In a statement, the Heritage Group dismissed the significance of the lion to Staffordshire, saying: "Members of the Staffordshire Heritage Group were advised by 'The Association of British Counties' that Staffordshire County Council proposed to register a design of flag to represent our historic county. Since the proposal was simply an abstract from the County Council Arms, there was concern that it could not represent the historic county.

"The Heritage Group felt that the gold lion on a blue background had no historical associations with Staffordshire and it detracted from the emblem which most people associate with the county.

"The Red Chevron on Gold of the de Toeni family has been evident in the area since Norman times and it was felt that it would make a suitable and distinctive background. It could accommodate an enlarged and correctly formed Knot.

"With the help of the Chief Vexilologist from the flag institute, an alternative design was submitted by the Staffordshire Heritage Group, which includes some 40 historically based groups throughout the county.

"As it is intended to cover the historic County of Staffordshire, that would include The Potteries and the Black Country, which were Staffordshire for hundreds of years before anyone thought of West Midlands County or Stoke unitary authority in 1973.

"It would be nice to have a flag that could fly in those historic Staffordshire areas, without implying they were part of the current County Council."

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