Happy Christmas!

Although separated between Dudley and Sandwell councils these two towns have a lot of shared history. Whilst Cradley and Cradley Heath do have a fun brotherly rivalry, I felt that the flags to represent them should be very similar – brother flags for brother towns if you will – though still noticeably different.
So first of all I decided on how to make the flags different before thinking of how to link them together. Fortunately the sports teams associated with each town gave me a clear answer. Cradley FC play in black and red whilst the famous Cradley Heathens speedway team used red and green as their representative colours.

Cradley Heathens further inspired me with regard to what symbols should be included on the flag. Their logo was a hammer and the chant that so often accompanies that great team was “Ommer um Cradley!”. The hammer is a reference to the metal working heritage behind the town and that ties in to Cradley’s strong association with chain making. Thus an ommer and chain motif seemed suitable for both towns.

I decided to place the chain across the diagonal of both flags to represent the boundary between the two of the river Stour, which was once an incredibly important industrial resource. The chain is white representing the heat of industry as well as contrasting with the red and black/green colour  combinations. On the Cradley flag below the chain is black and above it is red, whereas on the Cradley Heath flag, red is below and green above. This shows that the unique colour for each town
corresponds to their side of the Stour whilst the red on the opposing side indicates the close relationship that the two towns have.

In the foreground of the design on both flags is a chain hammer, that represent the chain hammers used across the two towns. The hammers are edged in that towns respective ‘unique’ colour and face towards the ‘other town’ to playfully hint at the rivalry between the towns.

The two designs look quite distinctive with the large elements of unique colour, yet the balanced use of red and white ensures that a family ‘look’ is preserved. I am very proud of designing flags for these two towns owing to their heritage that I share. My father was a proud Cradley man and after having traced my paternal line back over several generations it was revealed that my family have spent many years in both towns.

Something that readers familiar with ‘Tibbetts Back’ area may not be surprised to hear that as a Tibbetts myself I have a strong family connection to both Cradleys. As such I would like to dedicate this entry to my family, and the Cradley flag proposal in particular to my father.

Article is written by Phillip Tibbets, researcher of Heraldic Art and co-founder of Heartland Heritagewear