| Flag of Lancashire | |
| Proportion: | 3:5 |
| Adoption: | 20 November 2008 |
| Design: | A red rose flower on a yellow (gold) field. |
| Designer: | Friends of Real Lancashire |
A flag consisting of a red rose on a gold field is currently used to represent the historic county of Lancashire.[1] A red rose is a traditional symbol of Lancashire, and red and yellow are also the livery colours of the county.[2] The flag was designed by the Friends of Real Lancashire, a pressure group which promotes the historic county of Lancashire,[3] and registered with the Flag Institute, a British charity which promotes vexillology,[4] in 2008.
The flag has been flown from public buildings within the historic county on Lancashire Day (27 November), including County Hall in Preston,[5] St Helens Town Hall,[6] and the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government building in London. It has also been raised on public flagpoles in Littleborough and Milnrow, in the borough of Rochdale.[7]
An unofficial Lancashire flag, a red rose on a white field, was never registered. When an attempt was made to register it with the Flag Institute, it was found that this flag had already been registered by the town of Montrose, Angus, several hundred years earlier with the Lyon Office. As the Flag Institute will not register two flags of the same design within the United Kingdom, Lancashire's official flag was registered — in 2008 — as a red rose on a gold field. The background was chosen as it, along with red, are the livery colours of the county.[8]