h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Devon needs a flag!

I emailed devon county council and they arent aware of a devon county flag. So i think we need to make one up, a flag should represent all the aspects of our county so its got to have some green, i was thinking maybe a green saltire (like the st andrews flag but in green and with a white cross).
Any other ideas, and does anyone know anything about how to officially make a flag?
also does anyone know if devon has a patron saint type guy?

The obvious candidate for Patron Saint of Devon is St. Petrock, as suggested by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould at the beginnong of the 20th Century.

As to how to officially make a flag, I have no idea. Remember that the Cornish St. Piran flag is only an unofficial Cornish flag. Does any county have an official flag?

Plymouth Exile

I absolutely agree we would benefit from having a flag.

The first thing we need is a broader forum for a discussion - would BBC Devon be willing to promote this discussion?? I will email them.

Once we get agreement on a design (and I have stated before that I would suggest green white and black in the same vertical pattern as France) we need to consider to what extent it needs to be officially sanctioned.

Perhaps the County Council's seal of approval would be sufficient

As to the Patron saint - I would think St Petrock would be a good candidate.

Hi folks. This is an interesting discussion - I will give it some more publicity on our home page to help canvass some more views. Personally I think Devon would benefit from a flag of some sort - we could even use it on the website as part of our branding! Cheers.

To my understanding the only other counties that have adopted flags as such are cornwall and to a lesser extent yorkshire which (forgive me if im wrong) is a yorkshire rose on a green background.
I think that theres no real need for "official" recognition of a counties flag, i think that all it needs is a general acceptance by the public, as in cornwall with St Pirran.

Im pretty sure that most Devonians would like to have a county flag of some sort, it would also really help in my opinion to raise general interest in our county.

It worked for Cornwall, the St Pirran flag is now recognised by people from all over the country to represent Cornwall, so why not for us?

cheers then, i'll keep hunting round for information.

I've looked into this St Petrock character and he seems to always be referred to as a being a Cornish saint, does devon not have any saints that decided to stay here rather that cross the border?

Ive also been digging round for any previous flags and all i could find was some sort of wessex regional flag (hampshire, dorset, somerset etc) and that was/is red with a gold wyvern, not sure if i like the idea of being part of this wessex region though.

aye so thats my news for the day, see ya

Great idea about a flag.

A suggestion might be a green and white flag, in (seven) horizontal stripes.
I understand that these are Devon's colours, and green is a reflection of the rolling fields. When flying the stripes might also evoke an image of waves, reflecting Devon's maritime history.

I note 'Devonian' has done some research on St Petrock, and my research (on the web) confirms that he does seem to have strayed across the Tamar, and even based himself on Bodmin Moor for a while, but that there are more dedications to him in Devon than in Cornwall.

Of course it is to be expected that he would have travelled outside of Devon and visted our Cornish cousins - perhaps they had a greater need (that wasn't nice was it)

I couldn't find another good substitute of equal standing, although perhaps St Budeaux??

Like 'Devonian' I don't care much for being lumped into a Wessex regional identity. Hampshire might be a nice place, but it ain't Devon.

Ozzie Exile, Devonian and Coref,

Adoption of the Wessex Flag would definitely not be appropriate for Devon, as Devon was never an integral part of Wessex, although both Devon and Cornwall submitted to over-lordship by Wessex towards the end of the Dark Ages. Even Thomas Hardy always referred to the Southwest peninsula of Devon and Cornwall by the term "West of Wessex".

St. Budoc, (after whom the current Plymouth district of St. Budeaux is named), is a rather weak candidate for Patron Saint of Devon, as his only known habitat in Devon was on the banks of the Tamar. A better candidate would be St. Brannoc (or Brynach) whose influence spread over much of North Devon in the region of the Taw estuary, as his remains are said to be buried under the high altar of Braunton church. However, no Celtic saint has a better claim than St. Petrock, who has no fewer than eighteen churches dedicated to him, spread over most of Devon. Incidentally, Petrock (or Petroc) was not Cornish, but Welsh.

As for colours for a Devon Flag, the following are possibles:-

Green - to represent the lush green fields.
Red/Brown - to represent the Red Devon Soil and the Devon Red Sandstone Cliffs.
Grey - to represent the Granite Tors of Dartmoor.
Blue - to represent the Sea which is so important in Devon's history.
White - to represent the Sea Spray and the China Clay pits.


Plymouth Exile

Hmmm

Red, Green, Grey, Blue and White.

T'would certainly be colourful.

I like the idea of St. Petroc as patron saint, but another candidate should surely be St. Boniface, who hailed from Crediton. Mind you, he already has both Holland and Germany to patronise!

As for a flag, I think it's rather a shame that Devon County Council has stopped using the ship design which for many years was an extremely identifiable symbol of the county. Maybe this could be incorporated?

Hi folks,
Ive played around with quite a few different flag designs with loads of different colours and ive come up with my favourite, its a white (st george) cross on a green background and ive also placed the devon county coat of arms in the centre where the cross meets, i wouldve liked to have let you all see it but i dont know how to put it on the site, i'll try to put it somewhere on that "my space" thing but again i dont know quite how.
amy ideas of how we can show pictures on this site?

Wynfrith (or St. Boniface, as he was later known) was indeed born in Crediton in 680, but he was no friend of the people of Devon. He was the son of a Saxon nobleman, and hated the majority Celtic population of Devon. He was glad to leave Britain to evangelise in Germany and "undo" the teachings of Celtic monks who were converting the Teutonic heathens. So, although St. Boniface was born in Devon, his major works were carried out in Europe. Therefore I would suggest that he is not a suitable candidate for Patron Saint of Devon.

In my previous post, I made some suggestions for colours in a Devon Flag design, but I was not necessarily advocating using all of the colours. What do others think?

Plymouth Exile

That sounds an interesting design!

I come here from h2g2 (the BBC site on whose technology Sense Of Place is built). If the same rules apply, the only way to get a picture on-site is to suck up to the editors until they agree to 'blob' it for you....

On a less serious note, my brother pointed out that Boniface 'sounds poncey'. Un-PC as it may be, I can't really disagree...

i reckon that St Petroc is definately the best man for the job, even if he has got lots of Cornish connections, i mean its hard to find anyone from devon or Cornwall who's never ventured across the border.
Ive written to the editer guy about showing my design, so we'll see what comes from that i suppose

i reckon that St Petroc is definately the best man for the job, even if he has got lots of Cornish connections (but more devon ones).

I mean its hard to find anyone from devon or Cornwall who's never ventured across the border.

Ive written to the editer guy about showing my design, so we'll see what comes from that i suppose

i reckon that St Petroc is definately the best man for the job, even if he has got lots of Cornish connections (but more devon ones).

I mean its hard to find anyone from devon or Cornwall who's never ventured across the border.

Ive written to the editer guy about showing my design, so we'll see what comes from that i suppose

PS does anyone know what the deal is regarding the St Pirren flag being called the St Petroc flag in some texts?

If you want a saint who actually lived in Devon and did not disert our county how about St Nectan? Although he came from Wales (where the British actually originated from) he came to live in the north of Devon and was martyred there. He has had a cathedral-like church dedicated to him and many other churches, chapels and even an abbey.

Fredryck,

I had looked into St. Nectan as a possible patron saint, but as his sphere of influence seems to have been limited to the North Devon Coast, he probably would not receive the same level of acceptance as St. Petroc, dedications to whom appear all over Devon, and who was also Welsh.

I am not quite sure what you mean when you refer to Wales as "where the British actually originated from". The Ancient Britons were Iron Age people (Celts) who arrive in these isles in about 500BC, and occupied almost the whole of the land. Wales, as the name of a country, hadn't even been invented at that time. The name "Wales" was given to the land west of Offa's Dyke by the Anglo-Saxons, from the Saxon word "Wealas", meaning "foreigner".

Plymouth Exile

Dear Plymouth Exile

I have previously stated my preferred option for a flag of green white and black (in the same pattern as the French)

However I have considered that 'soccer club' clours may mean that green/white/black might be difficult to accept for some outside of Plymouth, even though Plymouth and Exeter once played each other for the 'right to wear the county colours' (Argyle won)

If this is true (and I see no evidence from the responses to date) then perhaps we need to be more embracing in our colours. Perhaps Green/White and Grey? Perhaps it isn't an issue after all?

I note others suggesting the inclusion of the county arms in the flag, but I don't see many flags which do this, and perhaps it would look cluttered.

I agree with another contributor, these designs are difficult to assess without 'visuals'.

Is there a way to contribute designs and/or perhaps if we had some designs 'blobbed' (whatever that is) to view and perhaps vote on, we may make more progress??