The Warwickshire flag is the flag of the historic county of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

in England. It was registered with 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 Regi ...

in August 2016. The flag was registered as a result of a campaign that secured the support of a dozen county organisations plus the sanction of both the Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff. __TOC__

Design

Warwickshire - bear and ragged staff (John Speed)

The design features the traditional bear and ragged staff used in the county since the Middle Ages as a symbol of the Earls of Warwick. The first recorded use of the two symbols was by the Beauchamp family, who became the Earls of Warwick in 1268, as a

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...

. They were initially used separately, and the earliest known appearance of them together was on a bed of black cloth embroidered with a gold bear and silver staff owned by

Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

(1338–1401). The bear and ragged staff appear in the same arrangement as the flag in John Speed's 1611 map of the county. The current holders of the title of Earl of Warwick, the Greville family, were granted the symbol of their predecessors, a "bear erect argent, muzzled gules, supporting a ragged staff of the first", shortly after being given the title in 1759. This crest is still used by the earls today. Over the centuries, however, the design has also become associated with the wider county. For example, the 1st Warwickshire Militia regiment, first raised in 1759, used the symbol. Many other organisations in the county followed in adopting the bear and ragged staff, including

Warwickshire Constabulary Warwickshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Warwickshire in England. It is the second smallest territorial police force in England and Wales after the City of London Police, with only 823 (full-time equivalents) ...

(established in 1857) and

Warwickshire County Council Warwickshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Warwickshire in England. Its headquarters are located at Shire Hall, Market Square, in centre of the county town of Warwick. Politically the county is ...

(established in 1889). The design of the flag lacks the chains and the muzzle on the bear, commonly found in old depictions of the emblem.

References

External links

* Flag Institute particularsbr>Background on the Warwickshire flag
{{Warwickshire 2016 establishments in England

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