THIS is the flag that could become Oxfordshire’s own. A campaign group is hoping to give Oxfordshire its own flag and has drawn up the “St Frideswide cross” as a potential design.

Edward Keene, chairman of the Oxfordshire Association, said: “A number of counties have a flag and increasingly there is an interest in getting them for those places which don’t. Flags promote solidarity and give people something to unite around.”

The flag is named after the patron saint of Oxford. Currently 30 counties around the UK have their own flags, including Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire.

But under rules set out by the Flag Institute the proposed standard could only become the flag of the historic county of Oxfordshire, and that excludes the Vale of the White Horse, which joined Oxfordshire in 1974.

There are two ways for a flag to become a county’s official one – either by public vote or by its widespread approval by bodies in the county.