Today, 5 June, is Wiltshire Day – the annual celebration of Wiltshire’s county identity, heritage and community.
Wiltshire Day is marked on 5 June, the date on which the county’s Great Bustard flag was first flown in 2007. The Flag Institute describes the Wiltshire flag as “a community flag proclaiming the unique identity of this historic English county.”
For RealCounties.com, Wiltshire Day is a chance to celebrate not just a beautiful part of southern England, but one of the country’s enduring historic counties: a county of chalk downs, white horses, market towns, ancient monuments, farmland, villages, rivers, railways, and modern industry.
From Swindon to Salisbury, Trowbridge to Marlborough, Chippenham to Devizes, Malmesbury to Warminster, Bradford-on-Avon to Westbury, Wiltshire is much more than a council area. It is a historic county with a shared identity reaching across different modern administrative arrangements.
A spokesperson for RealCounties.com said:
Wiltshire Day is a chance for the whole historic county to celebrate Wiltshire as Wiltshire. Councils do important work, but councils are administrative bodies. Counties are the enduring geography of the nation – the places people recognise, belong to, and take pride in. Whether someone lives in Swindon, Salisbury, Trowbridge, Chippenham, Devizes, Marlborough, Malmesbury, Bradford-on-Avon or a village on the downs, they are part of Wiltshire’s living county story.
The county flag is a strong modern symbol of that identity. Its Great Bustard recalls a bird long associated with the county and reintroduced on Salisbury Plain, while the green and white wavy lines represent Wiltshire’s open grassland and underlying chalk.
Wiltshire’s county story is exceptionally rich. The county includes Stonehenge, Avebury, Salisbury Cathedral, Old Sarum, the Vale of Pewsey, the Marlborough Downs, the Kennet and Avon Canal, the railway heritage of Swindon, and many of England’s best-known chalk landscapes and white horses.
RealCounties.com is encouraging residents, schools, local businesses, community groups, heritage organisations and local media to mark Wiltshire Day by flying the Wiltshire flag, sharing local history, using Wiltshire proudly in place descriptions, and exploring the county’s historic geography.
The Office for National Statistics recognises historic counties as a stable, unchanging geography for historic, traditional and cultural purposes, and the 2024 Index of Place Names includes historic county information for places across Great Britain.
The spokesperson added:
Wiltshire Day is not just about the past. County identity still matters today. It supports local pride, tourism, heritage, sport, culture, education and the simple question of where people are from. Administrative boundaries may change, but Wiltshire remains Wiltshire.
Wiltshire Day is celebrated annually on 5 June. More information about the historic counties and the Real Counties map is available at RealCounties.com.
Notes for editors
RealCounties.com is a public reference website operated by the Historic Counties Institute. It maps and explains the historic counties of Britain and Ireland, distinguishing them from council areas, lieutenancies, statistical areas and other administrative geographies.
Wiltshire Day is marked on 5 June. The date is associated with the first flying of the Great Bustard flag at County Hall, Trowbridge, in 2007.
For further information: RealCounties.com.