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The flag is unadorned and I think you can extend your interpretation to include the proliferation of flags which have a minimal "history". Banksy is from Bris'
by gerdesj 6mo ago
The flag is unadorned and I think you can extend your interpretation to include the proliferation of flags which have a minimal "history".
Banksy is from Bris'l which is sort of north Somerset (Somerset keeps on morphing faster than a sci-fi shapeshifter).
Cornwall has had a white cross on a black flag since 18something. Devon decided to adopt a black edged white cross on a green flag. I remember seeing Devon flag car stickers in the '80s - its a little older than that. Somerset now has ... a flag. Yellow and red I think.
No idea why because people can't decide what it is! The land itself knows exactly what and where it is but the political boundaries ebb and flow with the phases of the moon. Is Avon included ... what is Avon? Ooh, BANES - Somerset? Not today thank you. It goes on. Anyway, do Devon and Somerset and co really need a flag? No of course not.
What we really need is a Wessex flag, which will take over Mercia ... and a few other regional efforts ... and end up as a red cross on a white background. Then we could munge that with a couple of other flags and confuse the entire world with something called the Union Flag.
Then we can really get complicated ... hi Hawaii!
- mootothemax 6mo ago> what is Avon? Welsh for river.
- tomxor 6mo agoHah TIL. So it's the river Welsh river on the English side of the Bristol channel. I often feel like I would understand a lot more names if I bothered learning Welsh. It's pretty popular for made up climbing route names too, because Wales is so good for it I guess. Allegedly some of the classics in the Avon gorge are Welsh derived but I could never figure them out to be sure.
- ndsipa_pomu 6mo agoThey're more likely Celtic words that live on in Welsh.
- mootothemax 6mo agoIt’s lovely isn’t it? There’re a good few of these things around: notably Torpenhow Hill (which killjoys dispute); and ones like Pendle Hill (which they don’t).
- ndsipa_pomu 6mo agoThe Welsh "afon" derives from the earlier Celtic "abona" meaning "river". Also related to the Celtic "afanc" which was some kind of aquatic monster.
- mootothemax 6mo agoMakes sense given Welsh’s evolution from Britannic. Much to my shame, I only started visiting Wales in later life, and there’s really something in the language that grabs me quite deeply. Once I’ve got my Polish down to pat, I tell myself.
- Intermernet 6mo agoYou avon a chwerthin?
- gerdesj 6mo agoThere is also a nebulous region within England that might be called Avon, depending on the moon's phase and the price of loons. There is a river Avon in England. Welsh at least (inst. celtae) has a noun for "river" which is "afon".
- mootothemax 5mo agoRecommend looking up the pronunciation of that there afon :)
- ndsipa_pomu 6mo agoHard disagree that Bristol is North Somerset. I'm often surprised that Bristol (a lefty city) is surrounded by very right-leaning areas, but I suppose that's the nature of a bubble. I don't think it makes a huge amount of sense to try to lump us in all together, at least politically. As an aside, it still annoys me when websites put "Avon" as the county - it no longer exists and even the Post Office does this and they're the ones who should definitely know about it. As far as flags go, I'm very much against the "flag-shaggers" who go around putting up England's St George Cross flag - most of the time, the flags are seen as threatening to minorities which is very much NOT the general Bristolian attitude. (I actually live in St George, Bristol, so somewhat ironic that I'm cross about that flag).
- jen20 6mo ago> which is sort of north Somerset (Somerset keeps on morphing faster than a sci-fi shapeshifter). The seats in parliament that represent it and the local authority structure have changed, of course, the same as everywhere else in the country, but the boundaries of Somerset have remained constant for a long time. Bristol is absolutely not "North Somerset" as a general case (though certain suburbs do extend into Somerset counties, but on that basis Bristol is as much "South Gloucestershire"). > Ooh, BANES - Somerset? Not today thank you. It goes on. Bath has always been in Somerset and "BANES" literally stands for "Bath and North East Somerset".
- Nicook 6mo agoNever considered that, but mentioning flags that have minimal "history" pushed me in a totally different direction about some modern political transnational movements lol.