Flying Colours Flagmakers
{{Short description|Flagmakers based in North Yorkshire, England}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{advert|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Flying Colours Flagmakers
| logo = Flying Colours Flagmakers logo.png
| image = Elizabeth II's coffin leaves Holyrood Palace.jpg
| image_alt = An image of a hearse with a coffin inside, draped with a Royal Standard
| image_caption = Elizabeth II's coffin leaves Holyrood Palace
| type = Private
| industry = Flagmaking
| founded = 1994
| fate =
| hq_location = Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
| hq_location_country = England
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| revenue = £300,000
| operating_income =
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| num_employees = 18
| num_employees_year = 2022
| website = {{URL|https://www.flyingcolours.org/|Official website}}
}}
Flying Colours Flagmakers are a company based in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, who specialise in flags and standards. The company have been operating since 1994, and in 2022, one of their flags ordered by the Royal Household, adorned the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II whilst it was lying in state in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.
History
The company was founded in 1994, first making flags and standards for the Royal Household in 2000.{{cite news |title=Knaresborough firm 'honoured' to have made Queen's coffin flag |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-62875745 |access-date=12 September 2022 |work=BBC News |date=12 September 2022}} In 2007, the company was awarded a Royal Warrant, and is only one of six flagmakers who are registered with the United Kingdom Flag Institute.{{cite web |title=Flying Colours Flagmakers Ltd - The Queen's Flagmaker. |url=https://www.flyingcolours.org/ |website=www.flyingcolours.org |access-date=12 September 2022}}{{cite web |title=Flying Colours Flagmakers Ltd {{!}} Royal Warrant Holders Association |url=https://www.royalwarrant.org/company/flying-colours-flagmakers-ltd |website=www.royalwarrant.org |access-date=12 September 2022}} One of the flags they have made for the Royal Household, a Union Flag, measuring {{convert|38|ft}} by {{convert|19|ft}} and the largest in the United Kingdom, is regularly flown from Windsor Castle.{{cite news |title=North Yorkshire firm enjoys World Cup flag demand |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10335497 |access-date=12 September 2022 |work=BBC News |date=18 June 2010}}
The company have produced over 10,000 different types of flags in one of three styles; printed, appliqué, and sewn.{{sfn|Johnson|2022|p=6}} The company has been based in Knaresborough since its inception, and now employs 18 people.{{sfn|Johnson|2022|p=8}}{{cite news |title=Your three-minute digest |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/your-three-minute-digest-rx2xg9b8v |access-date=12 September 2022 |work=The Times |date=26 March 2019|url-access=subscription}} The company makes many flags for yachts, the Ministry of Defence, and some short-term flags such as rainbow flags during the COVID-19 pandemic and those showing solidarity for Ukraine after the Russian invasion.{{sfn|Johnson|2022|p=6}}
In 2012, demand for their products during Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee saw production increase fourfold.{{cite news |last1=Heward |first1=Emily |title=Shops enjoy sales boom in bunting and bubbly |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=2 June 2012 |page=4|issn=0963-1496}} The most notable example of one of their flags was the Royal Standard of Scotland which they made in 2021 for the Royal Household, and was used in September 2022 to adorn the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II whilst it was lying in state at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, as part of the funeral of the Queen. The company stated that this flag was manufactured without the fittings necessary for it to be hoisted on a flagpole, meaning that it was ordered as a coffin drape.{{cite news |editor-last1=Mitchinson |editor-first1=James |title=Queen's coffin drape was made by Yorkshire flagmaker |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=13 September 2022 |page=2}}
Flags made by Flying Colours Flagmakers have been flown in the Arctic, the Antarctic (on Sir David Attenborough), on Everest, Kilimanjaro, and down to one of the deepest trenches of the oceans when it was a table flag being displayed in a Royal Navy submarine.{{cite news|last=Cole|first=Julian|title=A man of standards|newspaper=The Yorkshire Post|location=Yorkshire Post Magazine|date=16 November 2019|page=14|issn=0963-1496}} The company's flags have also appeared on screen in the Fast and Furious 9, the X-Men series, and The Death of Stalin on film, and in The Crown and Gunpowder on television.{{cite news |last1=Humphreys |first1=Georgia |title=Delving into royal past |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=10 November 2020 |page=13|issn=0963-1496}} Flags for The Crown have been made for the programme since series one, and are all historically correct.{{cite news |last1=Mapstone |first1=Lucy |title=Yorkshire's role in some of 2019's best television moments |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=27 December 2019 |page=11|issn=0963-1496}}
References
{{reflist}}
= Sources =
- {{cite news|last=Johnson|first=Tony|title=White Rose Rising|newspaper=The Yorkshire Post|location=Yorkshire Post Magazine|date=30 July 2022|issn=0963-1496}}
External links
- [https://www.madeinbritain.org/members/flying-colours-flagmakers-ltd Flying Colours Flagmakers on madeinbritain.org]
- [https://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/about/trade-members/ Listing at the Flag Institute]
Category:1994 establishments in the United Kingdom