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

Ok the editor Guy has sent me an email and has agreed to put up my design of a devon flag so that we at least have a starting point of discussion and a means of comparison, he says that it's impossible to put pictures up in a discussion so he's going to have to make an article out of it then the discussion can continue from it like this one has from "celtic devon". Im not sure if he's writing an article or if he expected me to write one, but ive sent him the designs as i said so we'll see what happens from here.

Has anyone seen the new Argyle shirts? How about having "made in Cornwall" in huge letters on our shirts then? Personally i like em.

PS ive sent one with the coat of arms in the centre and one straight forward cross, it just occurred to me we could have a ship (ala argyle) in the centre instead though, how about that?

Hi everyone. There seems to be a growing feeling in favour of a Devon flag. Why not have a go at some designs of your own and send them to us here at A Sense of Place. Devonian started the original discussion and has now gone one step further and drawn up some basiuc designs. You can see them here >> A791949

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'CELTIC DEVON' to 'DEVON NEEDS A FLAG '.

This conversation has been moved to the new 'Devon needs a Flag' article, at the request of the Devon Editors.

What an interesting idea!

A flag is an excellent way of promoting an identity and, as a county, we have lot to be proud of.

Of course, North Devon has had a flag for several years. It was designed for the North Devon Marketing Bureau and appears on quite a lot of their literature.

It can be seen around the North Devon coast (and sometimes flying from the mast of MS Oldenburg) or at [Broken Link Removed by Moderator].

For some reason, the link gathered a stop at the end! Try:

http://www.evangel.co.uk/ndflag.htm

The third of Devonian's designs is by far the best, but might I suggest the shield might look better in the top-left quarter of the flag. Personally I still favour the simpler 'ship logo' which the county used to use...

Dear Parrferris,

The design you are referring to was my modification of Devonians original. I put the shield in the middle, so that when the flag is viewed on the reverse side, it doesn't look significantly different. The crest that Devonian has at the centre of his second design is the Devon County Council Coat of Arms. This would make the flag look as though it was specific to the Council and not a universal Devon Flag. Unless anyone can correct me, I believe that the Shield is a general Devon Symbol.

Plymouth Exile

I have seen the designs posted by Devonian and modified by Plymouth Exile and I must say that they look good.

I would prefer a less cluttered look and would probably tend toward the first of these options, with the third option running a close second (if you see what I mean).

I have submitted a couple of other entries to devon.online which they will (hopefully) post soon.

Keep up the good work

I have seen the 5 designs to date, and they don't look bad.

I quite like the first, third and fourth (although perhaps a deeper green on the fourth one).

I agree that the second looks a bit untidy and reminds me of a bowling club flag (no disrespect to any bowlers out there) and on flag five I am not sure grey works.

I will try to submit a suggested design of my own - if I can get one that looks okay.

I note elsewhere (Plymouth Exile) that St Petrock has a 'saints day' on June 4th. No chance of a public holiday then I suppose? (thought I would run that idea up the flagpole).

Interesting discussion (on Celtic Devon and a Devon flag).

It is refreshing to see these matters being raised - not before time in my view.

I am not sure genetics is the way to analyse people (sounds like it could stray into Aryan style racism) but certainly Devon's Celtic based culture should be brought to the fore.

As for the flag - this is a great idea. Lets see what ideas come forward. Some good concepts are there already.

As for the discussion on a patron saint - I am not that bothered - being a practising atheist.

Well, I have submitted a design to the Editor.

See what you think (when its posted)

Sooner or later we have to decide on one of these (or future) designs.

How can we do that?

I submitted a second design (better than my first one) a couple of days ago but it hasn't appeared yet. It is in the outline of a Celtic Cross (in black and white with a green background) with the Devon Shield in the middle of the central ring. If it doesn't appear today, I will E-Mail the Devon Editor again.

Incidentally, I also suggested to the Editor that he should start a message board on Devolution. It would appear that the Government's idea for a "Southwest Region" would stretch from Lands End to Gloucestershire and Witshire (based on the First World War Civil Defence Region). It would be by far the largest proposed region and would be longer than the distance from York to Brighton. Try telling the people of York and Brighton that they belong to the same region. The Editor has promised a message board within a few days, after initially saying that he didn't think anyone in Devon would be interested.

Plymouth Exile

I look forward to seeing your new design.

As for devolution not being a subject of interest in Devon you should refer to the other 'sense of place' discussions on the same subject around Britain (eg Cornwall).

The subject certainly seems to have had a run elsewhere - although most activity seems to have been some months ago.

I should reserve my comments until the message board comes up!

Hi all. Apologies for the delay in publishing some of your flag designs. We have a very small team responsible for the whole BBC Devon website and pressure of work at the moment means there's a bit of a backlog. We may be able to set up an online vote to choose which design people prefer. We can't do it on the Sense of Place site, but we could link to a special Devon voting page. Let me know what you think. Maybe we should let the discussion run a while longer? Cheers.

How about a deadline of August 10th. for further discussion and sumbission of designs, and then have voting until August 31st or September 14th (whichever is considered to be the more viable).

Plymouth Exile

I think Coref's flag is quite a neat one, but the basic design of a right facing arrow at the left side with horizontal stripes may be some sort of Islamic symbol, as several Islamic countries including Sudan, Jordan, Yemen Republic and Oman have this design in their flags.

Plymouth Exile

I believe the dates suggested by Plymouth Exile are reasonable (BBC Devon willing)

As for the religious significance of my flag design - none intended.

I am not aware of any symbolism in a right pointing triangle - and it may just be a good design principle that has been 'discovered' by others as well (!!!).

I must say that I do like the latest contribution by 'Plymouth Exile'.

I also like the design submitted by 'Coref' - although such a design does not appear particularly European (is this a bad thing?)

As to the dates and procedure suggested by Plymouth Exile - this sounds reasonable to me.

I am not sure how the voting works? How often can I vote for my own designs??

Hi folks. Can we extend your deadline until midnight on Sunday 18th August. We could then start the vote the following day. It will give us a bit more time to get the voting page ready - as some of the BBC Devon team are away on leave. We will create a page with thumbnails of each idea - people can then vote for their favourite. In theory you can only vote once from a particular PC. You can keep track of the most popular design as the vote progresses - although the system will only give you a basic percentage for each one. Hope this helps.

18th August is fine by me. How about the end of voting date?

Plymouth Exile