Once again, the county flag of Sussex will fly in the capitals of each of the county’s six Rapes (ancient territorial divisions) for the week up to and including #SussexDay on June 16th.
Since 2013, large Sussex flags have been hoisted annually over the Council House in Chichester, the Town Hall in Arundel, from St Peter’s Church in Upper Beeding representing Bramber, from Lewes Castle, from St Nicolas’ Church in Pevensey, and from Hastings Castle; each representing their respective historic division of Sussex ahead of the county day.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Arundel Town Council, Chichester City Council, The Parish of Beeding and Bramber with Botolphs, Lewes Castle, St Nicolas Pevensey and Hastings Castle for hosting the flags and continuously supporting Sussex Day in what has become somewhat a local tradition.
The flags will be raised for the week from Sunday 9th June.
—Sussex Flag, 10 May 2019
official registered flag, source: wiki
The flag of Sussex was registered as a result of a campaign started in August 2010, under the name of Saint Richard’s Flag, after the county’s patron saint, Saint Richard of Chichester.
The flag was slightly altered from the original proposal before its registration by the Flag Institute. The flag represents the whole of Sussex and is based on the traditional emblem of Sussex, six gold martlets on a blue field representing the six rapes of Sussex.
The first known recording of this emblem being used to represent the county was in 1611 when cartographer John Speed deployed it to represent the Kingdom of the South Saxons.
However, it seems that Speed was repeating an earlier association between the emblem and the county, rather than being the inventor of the association.
It is now firmly regarded that the county emblem originated and derived from the coat of arms of the 14th century Knight of the Shire, Sir John de Radynden.[4] Today it is used by many Sussex organisations, such as Sussex County Cricket Club, Sussex County Football Association and also features on the village sign of Ringmer in Sussex.[5]
The Flag Institute manages and maintains the national flag registry of the United Kingdom, and therefore this is now the definitive County Flag of Sussex.
