Berkshire History: Berkshire Coat of Arms & Berkshire Flag

The coat of arms of Berkshire were granted on 18th July 1947 and the supporters on 7th April 1961. Heraldically, they are described as follows:

Azure, two lions passant guardant in pale or, a bordure embattled ermine

Crest: on a wreath of the colours, upon a mount vert, a stag, in front of an oak tree fructed proper.

On the dexter side, a lion gules gorged with an ancient crown or and charged, on the shoulder, with a Tudor rose proper, and on the sinister side, a horse argent gorged with a like crown, pendent therefrom a bezant charged with a pile sable.

Berkshire is a Royal County, and the two lions on her coat of arms are derived from the arms attributed to the Norman kings with whom the county has close associations. William the Conqueror was often in residence at Windsor Castle and his son, King Henry I, founded and was buried at Reading Abbey. This privilege is unique among shire counties. The embattled border, of Royal ermine, refers to the Royal castles in the County, notably at Windsor & Wallingford.

The crest is based on an old County emblem alluding, not merely to the forestlands which gave Royal sport to the Saxon and Norman kings, but specifically to the legend of the Royal huntsman, Herne the Hunter. The oak tree is the one on which he hanged himself, in the late 14th century, before it was struck by lightning. The white hart is one of the manifestations of his restless spirit. It is a variation of the Old Berkshire badge used at one time by the Royal Berkshire Militia and, according to Drayton's poem of 1627, a banner with this badge, or something very like it, was carried by the men of Berkshire at the Battle of Agincourt.

The supporter of the shield on the left-hand side is a red lion collared with a golden ancient crown, emphasising the fact that Berkshire is a Royal county. The lion has, depicted on its shoulder, a Tudor rose, joining the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York. This is a reference to Windsor Castle where the leading monarchs of both factions are buried.

The supporter on the right is a white horse, also with an ancient crown in gold as a collar, hanging from which, a gold disc is shown with a black wedge, point downwards. The white horse refers, of course, to the ancient White Horse at Uffington and the lovely Vale of the White Horse. The wedge, heraldically a "pile," is a punning reference to the atomic energy pile, at Harwell. Taken together, the white horse and the wedge are reminders of the ancient and modern aspects of the Royal county.

Because the arms were officially granted to the Berkshire County Council and not actually to the county itself, they were altered slightly with the reorganisation of the administrative county boundaries in 1974 (largely the replacement of the white horse with a black one) and, since the council's demise in 1998, officially the county has no arms at all. Attempts to transfer the old arms to the Lord Lieutenancy have, so far, been unsuccessful.

Berkshire has never had a flag, although the county council occasionally used a stylised monochrome version of the two lions under a crown. Organisations in the county, on the other hand, have always used the white hart beneath its oak, as supposedly used at Agincourt, and this may be seen in logos and flags of various designs and colours, such as those of:

Having been approached by a number of organisations concerning this matter, RBH offers the design above which may be freely used by interested parties. The overall design is loosely based on the Welsh National flag and the Buckinghamshire arms, which both have animals before two coloured bands (although Buckinghamshire's are vertical). The colours of blue and white are taken from the old county arms, but are also used by Reading Football Club and may be seen as representing the River Thames. The circular form of the golden deer and oak is similar to that used by both the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the Berkshire Federation of Women's Institutes. The colour of gold on blue (and white) is again mirrored from the old arms and may be seen to represent Royalty as well as the Autumn colours of the oak illuminated by a lightning strike.