Buckinghamshire Flags – Chained Swan Flag, Bunting & Table Flags

The Buckinghamshire flag: the chained swan

The Buckinghamshire flag is a white swan, wings raised, wearing a gold crown around its neck with a gold chain trailing from it, on a field divided red at the hoist and black at the fly. The chained swan has been the county’s badge since the Middle Ages, when it was the emblem of the de Bohun earls and later the dukes of Buckingham, and the swan still appears on the county arms, on Aylesbury’s coat of arms and on the badges of the county cricket and football sides. The red and black halves come from the same heraldry. The design was registered with the Flag Institute in 2011 as the county flag and is the one flown from County Hall in Aylesbury. That is our Buckinghamshire flag; the Buckinghamshire Old flag is the earlier council-style banner with the swan beneath a gold band bearing the Whiteleaf cross in a green roundel, kept as a 5ft x 3ft for anyone who already flies it.

Where the swan flies

The flag goes up for the Bucks County Show at Weedon Park near Aylesbury at the end of August, the Olney pancake race on Shrove Tuesday, Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park, the regattas and river days at Marlow and Cookham, Waddesdon, Cliveden, Hughenden and Stowe, the Chiltern walking weekends on the Ridgeway, the Buckingham, Beaconsfield and Amersham fairs and the Chesham and Princes Risborough carnivals. The historic county takes in Milton Keynes, Slough and Eton as well, so the swan is flown there too, and it sits on garden poles across the Vale for St George’s Day, jubilees and coronations. The events calendar keeps the dates.

Sizes, grades and fittings

The registered flag is stocked in 20x12in for a hand pole, a desk or a car, 3ft x 2ft for a wall or a short mast, 5ft x 3ft for a 6m garden pole, a pub or a float, and 8ft x 5ft for a showground, a school or a tall fixed pole. Flagtex is the printed woven-polyester grade for a show day or a weekend; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted-polyester grade with reinforced hems and double stitching for a Chiltern pole that flies the swan all year. Both are finished with brass eyelets, and rope and toggle is an option on the DuraFlag for a halyard.

Buckinghamshire bunting

Buckinghamshire bunting repeats the swan on rectangular pennants in 3m and 9m lengths. Three metres dresses a bar, a shop or a classroom; nine metres runs along a village hall, a cricket pavilion or a show stand, and lengths tied together will cross a street in Olney or Marlow for a fair.

Hand flags and table flags

Buckinghamshire hand flags are 9x6in on wooden sticks for a parade, a school or the Adams Park crowd. On the desk there is the Buckinghamshire table flag with base at 6x4in, the 9x6in wooden table flag and the satin table flag for a council chamber or a dinner, with the Old pattern table flag alongside. Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hertfordshire are under county flags.

Buckinghamshire flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Buckinghamshire Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £7.99
• Buckinghamshire Bunting (3m & 9m)from £9.98
• Buckinghamshire Hand Flags£5.99
• Buckinghamshire Old Flag 5ft x 3ft£7.99
• Buckinghamshire Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Buckinghamshire Wooden Table Flagfrom £2.99
• Buckinghamshire Satin Table Flagfrom £5.00