The Essex flag is the flag of the
English county
The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...
of
Essex
Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...
. The flag of Essex is ancient in origin and features three notched Saxon
seax
''Seax'' (; also sax, sæx, sex; invariant in plural, latinized ''sachsum'') is an Old English word for "knife". In modern archaeology, the term ''seax'' is used specifically for a type of small sword, knife or dagger typical of the Germanic pe ...
es (cutlasses) on a red field.
The earliest references to the flag being used to represent the county date back to the 17th century. ''A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence'', written in 1605 by
Richard Verstegan
Richard Rowlands, born Richard Verstegan (c. 1550 – 1640), was an Anglo- Dutch antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Verstegan was born in East London the son of a cooper; his grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, was a refugee f ...
, referred to the Anglo-Saxons bearing a standard of "Three seaxes argent, in a field gules".
Similarly, cartographer
John Speed
John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.S. Bendall, 'Speed, John (1551/2–1629), historian and cartographer', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (OUP 2004/ ...
included the flag in his 1611 atlas ''The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine''.
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
also included the three seaxes as being representative of Essex in his 1675 work ''Divi Britannici''. As a result of this, the symbol was installed on a stained glass window in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
in 1735.
By 1815 the flag had become synonymous with the county, appearing as the masthead on the ''
Chelmsford Chronicle'' and as the logo of the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance Society.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the flag saw widespread usage throughout the county, appearing on buildings and infrastructure in numerous settlements.
In 1889,
Essex County Council adopted the flag as its own symbol.
The Flag Institute formally recognised the flag's relationship with the county in the early 21st century.
On 26 October 2014, the flag of Essex flew outside the
Department for Communities and Local Government
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local governme ...
in order to mark Essex Day. The day was chosen in order to mark the feast of
Saint Cedd.
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Flag design
The Pantone colours for the flag are:
*Red 485
*White
*Yellow 116
References
External links
*
Flag Institute registration particulars
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag Of Essex
Essex
Essex
Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...
Flags introduced in 1889