The Flag of Oxfordshire: The Ox, the Thames and the 1949 Arms

The Oxfordshire flag is older than its registration. Its ox, river and gold emblems come from a coat of arms granted in 1949, and the design was in wide use across the county before it was formally recorded as Oxfordshire's county flag in 2017. Along the way it saw off a modern council banner and a cross named after St Frideswide.

The design

The Flag Institute's UK Flag Registry records the flag as a county flag dated 1949, designed by the College of Arms, adopted by the "traditional" route, in the proportions 3:5 and the colours Pantone Blue 282, white, Red 186 and Yellow 116. [1] It is a banner of the arms of the former Oxfordshire County Council, first granted in 1949: a dark blue field with two broad white wavy diagonal lines representing the river Thames and its tributaries, a red ox head in the centre for Oxfordshire, a yellow wheatsheaf upper right and a yellow oak tree lower left, recalling the county's agriculture and woodland. [1]

The 1949 arms

The arms were granted on 5 May 1949. Their heraldic description is "Azure two Bendlets wavy Argent between in chief a Garb and in base an Oak Tree eradicated and fructed Or in the fess point an Ox's Head caboshed Gules". [2] The blue stands for Oxford University, while the wavy bends and the red ox's face play on the name Oxford: an ox at a ford. The wheatsheaf and oak tree refer to the agriculture and woods of the county. The motto, Sapere aude ("Dare to be wise"), was that of Lord Macclesfield, chairman of the county council when the arms were granted. [2]

Two council banners

After the local government reorganisation of 1974 the 1949 arms were no longer used by any armiger (holder of the arms). [3] The present Oxfordshire County Council received new arms in 1976. Its shield keeps the blue field, the white wavy bendlets, the wheatsheaf and the oak tree, but drops the ox head from the centre; a red ox appears instead as one of the supporters. [3] A banner of these 1976 arms is sold commercially and sometimes marketed as the "Oxfordshire flag", and a version with a green background is also seen, but neither is the county flag: as a banner of arms it represents only the county council. [3] [4]

The banner of the arms with the ox head, by contrast, had been widely used by county organisations: it appeared on the badges of the local constabulary, and has been used by Oxfordshire scouts, the county Rugby Football Union and the county hockey association. [3] [4]

Registration in 2017

In late February 2017 a group of seventeen local bodies asked the Flag Institute to add this de facto county flag to its registry. [4] They included Oxfordshire County Cricket Club, Oxfordshire Riding Club, Oxfordshire Hockey Association, Oxfordshire County Pool, Oxfordshire Army Cadet Force, the Oxfordshire Home Guard Living History Group, Oxford and District Anglers Association, and the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Union of Golf Clubs. [1]

The flag was registered in May 2017, but it only appeared in the online registry on 9 October 2017, once suitable artwork had arrived. [5] The Flag Institute asked for revisions to the existing design, and the registered version was drawn by Charles Ashburner, chief executive of the flagmaker Mr Flag. [3] Afterwards the flag was flown on Oxfordshire Day, 19 October, the feast day of St Frideswide, including by Thame Town Council in 2019. [4]

The St Frideswide Cross

Before the ox-head flag was registered, another design was promoted by the Oxfordshire Association. Named the St Frideswide Cross after the county's traditional heroine, it is a white cross on a quartered field of blue and green, with the first quarter green. [4] Flags of the World recorded it as the Association's proposal in August 2010. [3]

In March 2011 the St Frideswide Cross was hoisted above the Department for Communities and Local Government's Eland House headquarters in Victoria, as part of a scheme in which Secretary of State Eric Pickles had English county flags flown alongside the Union Flag for a week at a time. The department described it as "the flag representing the historic county of Oxfordshire". [6] It was never registered: British County Flags notes that as a new design it could have been registered only by winning a competition, and none was held. [4]

Fly the Oxfordshire flag

Midland Flags sells the Oxfordshire flag in a range of sizes.

Sources

1. The Flag Institute, "Oxfordshire", UK Flag Registry.
2. Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, "Obsolete counties": Oxfordshire County Council (former).
3. Flags of the World, "Oxfordshire (England)", last modified 25 June 2022.
4. British County Flags, "Oxfordshire".
5. Philip Tibbetts, The Flag Institute, "Oxfordshire and Suffolk appear in the Registry", 9 October 2017.
6. GOV.UK, "Oxfordshire flag flies at Department for Communities and Local Government", 28 March 2011.