County Durham Flags – St Cuthbert’s Cross Flag, Bunting & Table Flags

The County Durham flag: St Cuthbert’s cross

The County Durham flag carries the cross of St Cuthbert, the saint whose shrine behind the high altar of Durham Cathedral made the city, counterchanged in blue and gold on a field divided into the same two colours, so that the cross is gold where the ground is blue and blue where the ground is gold. Blue and gold are the colours of the Prince Bishops who ruled the county palatine for seven centuries, and the cross is the one found in St Cuthbert’s coffin and carried on the arms of the cathedral and the university. The flag was chosen by public vote and registered with the Flag Institute in 2013, and it is the one flown from County Hall and along the Gala route. That registered design is our County Durham flag; the Durham Old flag is the earlier council-style design flown before registration, held in the full size range for anyone matching an existing pole. The Durham City flag is a separate 5ft x 3ft for the city itself.

County Durham Day, 20 March

County Durham Day is 20 March, St Cuthbert’s feast day, with the flag on civic buildings, schools and churches from Barnard Castle to Seaham and the cathedral at the centre of it. The county’s calendar then runs through Durham Regatta on the Wear in June, the Durham Miners’ Gala on the second Saturday of July when the banners and the flag fill the city, the Durham County Show at Lambton Park, Kynren at Bishop Auckland through the summer, Beamish’s event weekends, the Lumiere light festival in November, Durham cricket at the Riverside and the football at Hartlepool, Darlington and Spennymoor. The historic county runs north to the Tyne and south to the Tees, so the cross is flown in Sunderland, Gateshead, South Shields, Hartlepool and Stockton as well. The events calendar keeps the dates.

Sizes, grades and fittings

Both the registered and the Old flag are held in 20x12in for a hand pole, a car or a desk, 3ft x 2ft for a wall or a short mast, 5ft x 3ft for a garden pole, a pub or a Gala banner pole, and 8ft x 5ft for the cricket ground, a council building or a tall fixed pole. Flagtex is the printed woven-polyester grade for the Gala, the regatta and Cuthbert’s day; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted-polyester grade with reinforced hems for a pole on the Pennine edge or the coast that flies the cross all year. Both have eyelets, and the DuraFlag can be supplied with rope and toggle for a halyard.

County Durham bunting

County Durham bunting repeats the blue and gold cross on rectangular pennants in 3m and 9m lengths. Three metres dresses a shop door or a classroom, nine metres runs along a village hall, a miners’ welfare or a cricket pavilion, and several lengths joined end to end cross a street for Gala day or County Durham Day.

Hand flags and table flags

County Durham hand flags are 9x6in on wooden sticks for the Gala procession, the Riverside and a school parade. For the desk there is the County Durham table flag with base at 6x4in, the 9x6in wooden table flag and the satin table flag for a council chamber, a college dinner or a reception, with the Old pattern table flag alongside. Northumberland, Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and Westmorland are under county flags.

County Durham flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• County Durham Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £6.99
• County Durham Bunting (3m & 9m)from £9.98
• County Durham Hand Flags£5.99
• Durham Old Flagfrom £7.99
• Durham City Flag 5ft x 3ft£10.79
• County Durham Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• County Durham Satin Table Flagfrom £5.00