County flags have become an important part of our regional and national identity.
Most historic English counties have a recognised county flag, but Staffordshire does not.
The Flag Institute maintains the UK Flag Registry as a definitive record of county and community flags, and works with county organisations to come up with suitable designs.
The historic county of Staffordshire includes Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and several other parishes that fall outside the boundaries of the modern Staffordshire County Council (SCC).
The Flag Institute received two applications for a Staffordshire county flag.
One came from Staffordshire County Council, and the other from the Staffordshire Heritage Group (SHG), an umbrella organisation for many local cultural groups.
Both applications met the Flag Institute’s published criteria, and both designs met its design guidelines, so the Flag Institute decided that a public vote was the only fair way to decide between the flags.
The two designs are shown below:
Staffordshire Heritage Group
Staffordshire County Council
The gold background and red chevron, common to both designs, comes from the de Stafford coat-of-arms.
It has been used in connection with the county since at least the 17th century.
Voting procedure
Voting will open on 9am on Monday 29 February and close at 9am on Sunday 27 March 2016.
The Flag Institute will announce the result the next day.
To vote, just go to the Flag Institute website and follow the link from the front page.
Voters must confirm that they live or work in the historic county of Staffordshire.
Graham Bartram, Flag Institute Chief Vexillologist, said: ‘For the first time the Flag Institute has received two applications for the same county, reflecting how important county flags are becoming to people. We feel it is only fair to let the people of Staffordshire decide which flag will represent them. I hope as many people as possible will vote for their preferred design.’
The vote has now closed.
Proud to live in Staffs,and of the knot.
Has the public been able to put forward designs?
How well has this vote been publicised?
Today on Facebook is the first I’ve heard of this vote.
Staffordshire Parish Registers Society supports the Staffordshire Heritage Group design. They have been transcribing Staffordshire’s Parish Registers since 1901 and published many of them in the area of Staffordshire right down to Clent, Broome, West Brom, right up to Walsall and Wolverhampton. I have asked the Express & Star to use their paper to inform all people living in that industrial part of Staffordshire of these two proposals and hope that many people will support the SHG design.