The three English counties of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset occupy the southwestern corner of Great Britain. I’m a big fan of these counties not only because geographical extremities are fascinating, but also because they have the good sense to all belong to a single flag family. Behold!
Weirdly (to me), though some English counties have had unofficial heraldic symbols or banners for a long time, there was no recognized way to designate official county flags until the United Kingdom’s Flag Institute was created in 1971. And since then, the counties have adopted flags in a wonderfully haphazard, disorganized fashion. Many counties in Wales and especially Scotland have no official flags at all, even today.
The Cornish flag was the first of this trio, having roots back to the 12th century. Devon’s flag was designed in 2003 and adopted in 2006, while Dorset’s was designed in 2006 and adopted in 2008. While some Cornish nationalists consider the other flags to be appropriations of the ancient Cornish design, I love the vexillological family created by this variations-on-a-theme approach. This is pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that whatever sibling rivalry these counties feel, the bonds created by their geographical proximity, cultural similarity, and possibly shared anti-London sentiment are probably stronger. And what better way to demonstrate this than through related flags?
To my dismay, Somerset, the next county in this geographical sequence, deliberately broke the pattern when they adopted their flag in 2013. It’s a lovely design, but I do wish they had consulted me first.
Cowell in Cascadia 