Hampshire Flags – Crowned Rose Flag, Bunting, Hand & Table Flags

The Hampshire flag: the crowned rose on gold

The Hampshire flag is a red rose surmounted by a gold crown on a gold field. The rose and crown have been the county’s badge for centuries, worn by the county cricket club, the county council and the Hampshire regiments, and after a public vote the crowned rose on gold was registered with the Flag Institute in 2019 as the county flag. That registered design is our Hampshire flag; the Hampshire Old flag carries the rose in its earlier layout, the version flown around the county before registration, with its own bunting, hand flags and table flags for anyone matching an existing display.

Hampshire Day, 15 July

Hampshire Day is St Swithun’s Day, 15 July, named for the ninth-century Bishop of Winchester whose feast is better known for forecasting forty days of rain, and the rose flies on civic buildings in Winchester, Southampton, Portsmouth, Basingstoke and the market towns for the day. The county’s calendar then runs through the New Forest Show at Brockenhurst in July, the Romsey Show, the Alresford Watercress Festival, Winchester’s Hat Fair, the Southampton Boat Show in September, Hampshire cricket at the Ageas Bowl, Saints at St Mary’s and Pompey at Fratton Park, with the Aldershot and Tidworth garrisons flying it beside their regimental colours. The historic county also reaches Bournemouth and Christchurch, so the rose is seen along that coast too. The events calendar keeps the dates.

Sizes, grades and fittings

The registered flag is held in 20x12in for a hand pole, a boat or a desk, 3ft x 2ft for a wall or a short mast, 5ft x 3ft for a garden pole, a pub or a float, and 8ft x 5ft for a county ground, a council building or a tall fixed pole, with the Old flag in the same four sizes. Flagtex is the printed woven-polyester grade for the show, the boat show and St Swithun’s weekend; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted-polyester grade with reinforced hems for a pole on the Solent shore or the Downs that flies the rose all year. Eyelets are standard across both grades, and the DuraFlag can be made up with rope and toggle for a halyard pole.

Hampshire bunting

Hampshire bunting carries the rose on rectangular pennants in 3m and 9m lengths. A 3m run dresses a shop door or a classroom, 9m runs along a village hall or a sailing-club balcony, and several lengths joined end to end cross a high street for Hampshire Day or the carnival.

Hand flags and table flags

Hampshire hand flags are 9x6in on wooden sticks for the show ring, the Ageas Bowl and a school parade. For the desk there is the Hampshire table flag with base at 6x4in in the registered design, the Old pattern table flag, the 9x6in wooden table flag and the satin table flag for a council chamber, a regimental dinner or a hotel reception, also in the Old design. Surrey, Sussex, Wiltshire, Dorset, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight are under county flags.

Hampshire flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

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