Wessex Flags – Golden Wyvern Flag, Bunting & Table Flags

The Wessex flag: the golden wyvern

The Wessex flag is a golden wyvern, the two-legged winged dragon, striding across a plain red field. Chroniclers of the Middle Ages wrote of a dragon standard carried for the West Saxon kings, and the beast was later painted on the memorials of Alfred the Great and adopted by Thomas Hardy for the Wessex of his novels, so by the twentieth century the golden wyvern on red had become the badge of the whole south-western region. It is recognised by the Flag Institute as the regional flag of Wessex and it is flown by the Wessex Society, at Saxon and Viking re-enactments and by people from Winchester to Weymouth who think of their home as part of Alfred’s kingdom. The standard drawing is our Wessex flag; the English Wessex Dragon (B) flag is a white dragon outlined in black on the same red, an older woodcut-style rendering that some groups and re-enactment societies prefer.

Where the wyvern flies

Wessex has no single county day, so the flag comes out at the places and events that mark the region: the Alfred statue in Winchester, Athelney and the Somerset Levels, Glastonbury, the Dorset County Show at Dorchester, the Royal Bath and West at Shepton Mallet, the New Forest and Romsey shows, Weymouth and Poole harbours, the Hardy country around Dorchester and the hill forts of Maiden Castle and Old Sarum. Re-enactment groups fly it at Battle of Edington commemorations and at the big living-history weekends, and it is a favourite on garden poles across Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset and Berkshire for anyone who wants a regional flag beside the Cross of St George. The events calendar has the dates for the shows.

Sizes, grades and fittings

The Wessex flag is held in 20x12in for a hand pole, a tent or a desk, 3ft x 2ft for a wall or a short mast, 5ft x 3ft for a 6m garden pole, a camp or a pub, and 8ft x 5ft for a show ring or a fixed 20ft pole; the white dragon version runs from 20x12in to 5ft x 3ft. Flagtex is the printed woven-polyester grade for shows and weekends away, DuraFlag the heavier knitted-polyester grade with reinforced hems and double stitching for a pole that flies the wyvern all year on the Dorset coast or the Wiltshire downs. Both are finished with eyelets, and the DuraFlag can be ordered with rope and toggle for a halyard.

Wessex bunting

Wessex bunting carries the golden wyvern on every rectangular pennant in 3m and 9m lengths. A 3m length dresses a stall, a bar or a classroom, 9m runs along a re-enactment camp, a village hall or a show marquee, and several lengths joined together will span a street for a Saxon festival or a county fair.

Hand flags and table flags

Wessex hand flags are 9x6in on a wooden stick for a crowd, a parade or a school history day. On the desk there is the Wessex table flag with base at 6x4in, the 9x6in wooden table flag and the satin table flag for a society dinner or a reception, and the white dragon table flag for the alternative design. Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Berkshire each have their own county flag under county flags.

Wessex flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Wessex Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, 2 grades)from £6.99
• Wessex Bunting (3m & 9m)from £9.98
• Wessex Hand Flags£5.99
• English Wessex Dragon (B) Flagfrom £7.99
• Wessex Table Flag with Basefrom £1.98
• Wessex Wooden Table Flagfrom £2.99
• Wessex Satin Table Flagfrom £5.00