welsh county flag proposals

8/13/2019 Welsh County Flag Proposals

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PROPOSED WELSH COUNTY FLAGS

MERIONETH

The proposed Merioneth flag is adapted from the seal used by the former countycouncil



This in turn derived from the description of a banner borne by the men of Merioneth at

the Battle of Agincourt, in the 17th century poem of the same name by Michael Drayton.

Here he wrote of "three goats dancing 'gainst a rising sun"; the shield was blue, the sun

golden and the goats white. Speculation regarding this unusual arrangement suggests a

connection with Cader Idris, where goats browsed and behind which the sun rose.

The same device can be found on the ceiling of the Shanklin Reading Room at Bangor

University, representing the county

The proposed flag therefore both maintains a theme associated with Merioneth for six

centuries and is also a highly distinctive design – no other flag features a sun in this

position and the arrangement is uniquely Merioneth.



CEREDIGION

The design is a banner of the arms attributed to Gwaithfoed, the

medieval prince of Ceredigion, a black shield bearing a golden lion regauardant, that is, looking

backwards, with red tongue and claws. The Gwaithfoed arms were incorporated into the arms



of the Cardiganshire County Council in the top left quadrant.

Interestingly several heraldic sources indicate an original version of the Gwaithfoed arms

with these colours reversed . Such switching of the colours of field and

charge in attributed arms is not uncommon in early Welsh heraldry but by the twentieth

century, the council’s use of the gold lion on black indicates that this had become the

established form and the locally familiar design.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=ceredigion+county+council+arms&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1T4WZPC_enGB361GB361&biw=1600&bih=672&tbm=isch&tbnid=WvnFBKKbCbY10M:&imgrefurl=http://johnmarkcole.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html&docid=Bn8y_l2RHnt2aM&w=150&h=214&ei=xzSPTqDEA8vF8QPzxukm&zoom=1



ANGLESEY

The design is a banner of the arms ascribed by later mediæval heralds,

to the earlier, locally-celebrated ruler, Hwfa ap Cynddlw. The earliest reference to the

arms seems to be in the work of the bard Lewys Glyn Cothi, an expert in heraldry, from

the period of 1447 to 1486 - although there is no evident explanation for the choice of

colours or charges used. A late c. 15th-century stained-glass window with the arms

referring to Hwfa, are reportedly depicted in the east window of Llangadwaladr

Church on the island. According to the heraldic historian Wilfrid Scott-Giles, Anglesey

County Council used these Hwfa arms informally before they were incorporated into

the design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_Scott-Giles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglesey_County_Council


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/COA_Hwfa_ap_Cynddelw.svg



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_Scott-Giles



Local recognition and association with the Hwfa arms is also demonstrated by their

appearance on the sign of the Bold Arms Hotel, in Beaumaris

and commercial availability as a representative badge of the island.



An association between the Hwfa arms and the island county of Anglesey is thus long

established.

In 2012 the proposed Anglesey flag was displayed on the island county’s summit,

“Holyhead Mountain”

and in 2013 it was displayed on stage by Welsh folk ensemble Dawnswyr Bro Cefni,

while on tour in Germany



FLINTSHIRE

The Flintshire proposal derives from arms anachronistically attributed to the local Dark Age

ruler, Edwin of Tegeingl, a former kingdom that covered much of the territory of Flintshire. The

arms bore a black engrailed cross, that is, a cross with scalloped edges, on a white field between

four black and red choughs, a bird once likely to have been widespread in the vicinity.

welsh county flag proposals

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