Devised by Jason Saber, the flag combines charges found in the county’s armorial history. The kingdom of Brycheiniog was established in the 5th century by a revered Welsh patriarch named Brychan and survived until its subjugation in the Middle-Ages. In the later Mediaeval period arms were assigned to Brychan,

his quartered shield featuring the purported arms of his father Anlach in the first and fourth quarters; black with a gold bar across the centre and two smaller bars above and beneath that (a cotised bar) with silver sword at top and bottom; with the arms attributed to his mother Marchell, gold with three blue bats, thus;

Upon its establishment in 1889 the Brecknockshire County Council adopted the attributed arms of Brychan but never obtained an official grant of armorial bearings. In adopting these legendary arms, albeit informally, the council asserted a linkage between the early kingdom and the later county and highlighted the historical significance of the founding father Brychan. The symbols used clearly being felt to be appropriate and locally meaningful. Accordingly, the flag

reworks the essential and more distinctive elements found in the arms in the three colours of black, gold and “cerulean” blue. The black features as the main field colour, upon this is a cotised gold stripe i.e. a stripe with two smaller ones above and beneath, as found in the arms of Brychan, which is felt to be a particularly elegant and pleasing arrangement. Across the cotised gold stripe is placed the silhouette of a bat with outstretched wings in the blue shade.

The design is locally meaningful with historically relevant symbols and colours, presented in a simple but unusual and visually interesting arrangement. Additionally bats are an uncommon charge on flags so the design is generally rare and certainly unique amongst British county flags. It is used for its Twitter profile by a county based wildlife organisation

and in the Summer of 2021 inspired the name of a podcast about Welsh politics titled “Like A Bat Out Of Hay”!

Below

the flag is seen at the Tourist Information Bureau in Hay-On-Wye in the county, just south of the River Wye which forms the boundary with Radnorshire and here,

it is at Hay Castle, in the town and by a finger post on the corners of  Lion and Belmont streets. Below

the flag is shown by a park in Builth Wells, by the side of the River Wye, which is the border with Radnorshire and it is displayed here

alongside the flag of neighbouring county Glamorgan on both sides of a bridge over the county boundary, the Taf Fechan river, south of Pontstichill. It is seen below

alongside the flag of neighbour, Monmouthshire, to the north of the River Rhymney and following

is on view at Pont-Sarn on the Taf Fechan Gorge, the river being the mutual county boundary with Glamorgan and the flag presented on the Brecknockshire bank. It flies here

at Beacons Reservoir on the A470 in the Brecon Beacons National Park and below

at Blaenglyn Tarell in the county.

Useful Links

Brecknockshire

The Brecknockshire flag design

is available to buy here and here and is promoted here.