Suffolk Flags – St Edmund Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Suffolk flag: St Edmund’s crown and arrows

The Suffolk flag is a gold crown over two crossed gold arrows on a blue field, the arms long attributed to St Edmund, the king of East Anglia killed by a Danish army in 869 after refusing to give up his faith; the arrows are the ones that killed him and the crown is his kingship and martyrdom. Edmund was England’s patron saint before St George, his shrine at Bury St Edmunds was one of the great pilgrimages of the Middle Ages, and the crown and arrows have been the county’s emblem on everything from the Suffolk Regiment to the council’s own arms ever since. The design was registered as the county flag of Suffolk with the Flag Institute in 2017 after a public campaign, which is why our Suffolk New flag carries that name. The Suffolk Old flag is the banner of the county council’s arms, a gold sun rising over the sea on a red shield, which still flies on older civic buildings and is bought by people who grew up with it.

Suffolk Day, the Show and the coast

Suffolk Day on 21 June, the longest day, has been celebrated since 2017 with flags on county buildings, church towers, pubs and village greens, and it falls in the middle of a season that starts with the Suffolk Show at Trinity Park, Ipswich, in late May or early June, runs through the Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings, Latitude at Henham Park in July, Ipswich Maritime Festival and FolkEast, and ends with the Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre. Ipswich Town supporters hang the flag at Portman Road alongside the blue and white, the Newmarket racing crowd and the Woodbridge, Southwold and Lowestoft sailing clubs fly it on the water, and the beach-hut owners of Felixstowe and Southwold put it on the hut. Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and the other counties are under county flags.

Sizes, grades and fittings

The Suffolk flag is stocked in 20x12in for a car or hand pole, 3ft x 2ft for a hut, a bar or a short pole, 5ft x 3ft for a garden flagpole, a pub or a show stand, and 8ft x 5ft for a church tower, a town hall or a sailing club. Flagtex is the woven-polyester print with brass eyelets for Suffolk Day and the summer season; DuraFlag is the heavier knitted grade with double-stitched hems and a reinforced header, roped and toggled, for a flag that lives on a coastal pole in the wind off the North Sea.

Suffolk bunting

Suffolk bunting repeats the crown and arrows on each rectangular pennant, sewn to a tape in 3m and 9m lengths, with the Suffolk Old bunting in the same lengths for the rising-sun arms. A 3m length does a pub doorway or a beach hut, 9m runs the length of a village hall, a show marquee or a shop front, and lengths tie together for a high street on Suffolk Day.

Hand flags and table flags

Suffolk hand flags on wooden sticks are the carnival, parade and school-assembly flags, with the Suffolk Old hand flag alongside. The Suffolk table flag with base is the 6x4in desk flag for a parish council, a hotel reception or a civic dinner, the wooden table flag is the 9x6in version on a wooden stand, and the satin table flag is the sleeved one for a chrome base; all three come in the Old design too.

Suffolk flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Suffolk Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, Flagtex or DuraFlag)from £6.99
• Suffolk Old Flag (county arms)from £7.99
• Suffolk Bunting (3m or 9m)from £9.98
• Suffolk Hand Flags£5.99
• Suffolk Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Suffolk Wooden Table Flagfrom £2.99
• Suffolk Satin Table Flagfrom £5.00