Flag of Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire


Proportion	3:5
Adopted	1951
Designed by	College of Arms

The Bedfordshire flag is the flag of the county of Bedfordshire. It is a based on the banner of the arms of the, now defunct, Bedfordshire County Council. The banner of arms are described in heraldic terms as Quarterly Or and Gules a Fess wavy barry way of four Argent and Azure surmounted by a Pale Sable charged with three Escallops of the third.

The arms were granted to the county council in 1951, and adopted as the flag of the modern day historic and ceremonial county of Bedfordshire in 2014.

When flying, the top corner, nearest the flagpole, should be gold.

History

An image of the coat of arms of Bedfordshire County Council on the walls of Dunstable library

Bedfordshire County Council had its coat of arms created in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. The coat of arms became the symbol of the county being placed on many public buildings and signs. The council used the banner of arms as a flag until it was abolished in 2009.

In 2014 The Friends of Bedfordshire Society began a successful campaign to have a slightly updated version of the council's flag registered with the Flag Institute.

Design

Coat of arms of the Beauchamps, Barons of Bedford.

The flag is made up of three main elements which contribute to the overall design of the flag:^[1]

The red and yellow quadrants which come from the coat of arms of the Beauchamp family, who were a prominent family in the county after the Norman conquest. They also constructed Bedford Castle and were granted a barony at Bedford.

Coat of arms of the Duke of Bedford

The vertical black stripe which takes the center of the flag containing three shells, or escallops. This comes from the coat of arms of the Duke of Bedford.
The horizontal blue and white wavy lines. These represent the river Great Ouse which passes through the county.

The county councils original design was at odds with the apparent Rule of Tincture, showing a white and yellow section next to one another. When the flag was officially recognised for the county it was decided that the blue and white on the left side of the flag should be reversed to make the colours more visible, without changing the character of the flag. Also to add to the contrast, a slightly lighter shade of blue was chosen.

Colours

The pantone colours for the flag are:^[2]

Yellow 109
Red 485
Blue 300
White
Black

References

External links

Ceremonial county of Bedfordshire

England Portal

Unitary authorities	Borough of Bedford Borough of Luton Central Bedfordshire

Major settlements	Ampthill Arlesey Barton-le-Clay Bedford Biggleswade Dunstable Flitwick Houghton Regis Kempston Leighton Buzzard Linslade Luton Potton Sandy Shefford Stotfold Wixams See also: List of civil parishes in Bedfordshire

Topics	Parliamentary constituencies Places SSSIs Tourist attractions Country houses Grade I listed buildings Grade II* listed buildings History Lord Lieutenants High Sheriffs Museums Sport County flag

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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