The Northamptonshire flag is the official flag of the English county of

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. It was registered by the

Flag Institute The Flag Institute is a UK membership organisation headquartered in Kingston upon Hull, England, concerned with researching and promoting the use and design of flags. It documents flags in the UK and internationally, maintains a UK Flag Registr ...

on 11 September 2014, the design being a gold cross fimbriated in black on a maroon background with a rose in the centre. __TOC__

Flag design

The flag was designed by Brady Ells and Ian Chadwick and consists of a gold cross fimbriated in black on a maroon field and a rose in the centre. It was the winning design of a shortlist of four put forward for a public vote. The cross represents the county's location as a crossroads in England, the colours were inspired by the county's

cricket team Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by strikin ...

and county town's

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

, and the black border represents the county's leather industry. A rose was selected for the centre as it has long been a symbol for the county. The rose design was created based on research into roses used in the past to represent the county, and a final design included elements of these historic depictions.

Use

The flag was unveiled at a special ceremony at the Northamptonshire County Hall by

Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council that governed the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, recreated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 19 ...

. It was raised above the building on 25 October 2014 to coincide with the newly created County Day, held on St Crispin's Day.

References

External links

* Flag Institute – Northamptonshire {{DEFAULTSORT:Flag of Northamptonshire Northamptonshire