Flag of County Durham

County Durham


Proportion	3:5
Adopted	2013
Designed by	Katie, Holly and James Moffatt

The Flag of County Durham is the flag of the historic county of Durham. It was registered with the Flag Institute as the flag of the county in 2013, after winning an online competition to decide a flag for the county.^[1]

Armorial banner

The flag of Durham County Council, used as an unofficial flag of County Durham until the adoption of the new flag in 2013

County Durham has long used the flag of Durham County Council as an unofficial flag of the county. This flag was the banner of arms of the County Council, based on the arms of the See of Durham (Azure a Cross Or between four Lions rampant Argent).^[2] In 1961 the council adopted a coat of arms based on those of the See, with the lions holding swords and wearing crowns and the addition of five black lozenges to represent the county's coal mining industries. After the Local Government Act 1972 came into effect County Durham lost territory in the north to Tyne and Wear and in the south to Cleveland, whilst gaining the Startforth Rural District from the North Riding of Yorkshire. The arms of the County Council were altered to their present form by replacing the central lozenge with a White Rose of York.^[3]

2013 flag

A competition to design a new flag for County Durham was launched in July 2013 on the blog of Andy Strangeway, who had already established flags for the Ridings of Yorkshire.^[4] The competition noted that County Durham was the only traditional county in the North of England without a flag, after the adoption of the flags of Cumberland and Westmorland in 2011 and 2012.

The winning flag was chosen from six finalists, and was designed by twins Katie and Holly Moffatt and their father James Moffatt from Chilton, County Durham. The flag features the Cross of St Cuthbert, counterchanged on the county colours of blue and gold.

References

↑ "County Durham flag with St Cuthbert's cross wins vote". BBC Press Office. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
↑ "Durham, Bishopric of". Civic Heraldry of England and Wales. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
↑ "Durham County Council (UA)". Civic Heraldry of England and Wales. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
↑ "County Durham flag design competition launched". BBC Press Office. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.

External links

County Durham Flag on Andy Strangeway's blog
Flag Institute – County Durham

Subnational flags of the United Kingdom

England (list)	Bedfordshire Berkshire Birmingham Black Country Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumberland Derbyshire Devon Dorset County Durham East Anglia Essex Gloucestershire Greater Manchester Herefordshire Hertfordshire Huntingdonshire Isles of Scilly Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Lincolnshire City of London Mercia Middlesex Northamptonshire Northumberland Northumbria Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Plymouth Rutland Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire Surrey Sussex Wessex Westmorland Wiltshire Worcestershire Yorkshire (East, North & West Ridings)

Northern Ireland (list)	Belfast Ulster

Scotland (list)	Caithness Kirkcudbrightshire Orkney Shetland

Wales (list)	Anglesey Caernarfonshire Flintshire Glamorgan Merionethshire Monmouthshire Montgomeryshire Pembrokeshire

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