Man designs flags for towns of the Black Country

A man spent the Christmas break designing flags for the towns of the Black Country.

Andy Slater said he created his 23 flags using traditional coats of arms from the areas or from local history.

He accompanied them with the officially adopted flags of the areas of Bloxwich, Finchfield, Kingswinford and Willenhall.

Mr Slater, from Bearwood in Smethwick, described it as like going down a "rabbit hole".

Speaking to Radio WM, he said: "As part of my work I do a lot of designing maps and graphic design and, over Christmas, I had some time off and I looked at all the DIY jobs that needed doing around the house and instead of doing something practical I wondered what a flag of Smethwick would look like.

"It began there and it sort of snowballed a bit."

Mr Slater said in most cases he used the traditional crests of the urban district councils of the historic parishes, but where there was not a crest he came up with his own ideas based on suggestions from people.

He added he would "love" if there was enough interest in some areas to go through the process to adopt the flags officially.

The Black Country itself has its own official flag, which is black, white and red with chains signifying the areas industrial past, and was adopted in 2012 after being designed by 11-year-old Gracie Sheppard as the winning entry in a competition run by the Black Country Living Museum.

Mr Slater is now working on more areas, after requests, and is also working on designs for each area of Birmingham.

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