Hertfordshire Flags – Hart & Waves Flag, Bunting & Table Flags

The Hertfordshire flag: the hart over the waves

The Hertfordshire flag is a field of blue and white wavy bars with a gold shield in the centre carrying a brown hart, a red deer stag, lying at rest. The hart is the county’s name made visible, the stag of the hart’s ford that gave Hertford its name, and the waves are the rivers, the Lea, the Colne, the Ver and the Stort, that drain the county south to the Thames. The hart and waves were the arms of Hertfordshire County Council, and the banner was registered with the Flag Institute as the county flag in 2008. It flies from County Hall in Hertford and from the town halls of St Albans, Watford and Stevenage, and our Hertfordshire flag is that registered design in two grades.

Where the hart flies

The flag goes up for the Herts County Show at Redbourn over the late May bank holiday, Watford at Vicarage Road, Stevenage at the Lamex and Boreham Wood at Meadow Park, Hertfordshire cricket, the St Albans Steam and Country Show, the Hertford and Hitchin carnivals, Knebworth House and its concerts, Hatfield House and the Ashridge estate, the Tring and Royston agricultural shows, the Rickmansworth canal festival, Bishop’s Stortford and Sawbridgeworth on the Stort, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City centenaries, the Lee Valley at Cheshunt and Broxbourne, Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted Castle, and on garden poles from Baldock to Barnet for jubilees and coronations. The historic county includes Barnet, Potters Bar and Totteridge, so the hart flies there too. The events calendar keeps the dates.

Sizes, grades and fittings

Hertfordshire flags are held in 20x12in for a hand pole, a car or a desk, 3ft x 2ft for a wall, a canal boat or a short mast, and 5ft x 3ft for a 6m garden pole, a pub or a sports club. Flagtex is the printed woven-polyester grade that suits a show weekend or a home match; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted-polyester grade with reinforced hems and double stitching for a Chilterns pole that flies the hart all year. Both grades are eyeleted, and the DuraFlag can be had with rope and toggle for a halyard. There is no 8ft x 5ft in the Hertfordshire range.

Hertfordshire bunting

Hertfordshire bunting repeats the hart on rectangular pennants in 3m and 9m lengths. Three metres does a bar, a tea room or a classroom, nine metres runs along a village hall, a cricket pavilion or a scout hut, and several strings joined will cross a high street in Ware or Hitchin for a carnival.

Hand flags and table flags

Hertfordshire hand flags are 9x6in on wooden sticks for a parade, a school or the Redbourn showground. On the desk there is the Hertfordshire table flag with base at 6x4in, the 9x6in wooden table flag and the satin table flag for a council chamber, a mayor’s parlour or a dinner. Essex, Bedfordshire, Middlesex and Buckinghamshire are under county flags.

Hertfordshire flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Hertfordshire Flag (20x12in to 5x3ft, 2 grades)from £7.99
• Hertfordshire Bunting (3m & 9m)from £9.98
• Hertfordshire Hand Flags£5.99
• Hertfordshire Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Hertfordshire Wooden Table Flagfrom £2.99
• Hertfordshire Satin Table Flagfrom £5.00