Kent coat of arms-flag

Embroidered patch shows Kent coat of arms. Patch made on a red background with big white prancing horse.The flag of Kent was included on the registry from its inception. The design of a white horse rearing on its hind legs has been associated with the county for over a thousand years. Tradition holds that the first Germanic invaders in Britain were Jutish mercenaries from the Danish peninsula, led by brothers Hengist and Horsa: the pair appear in the 9th century work on the history of the English people, “Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum” by the Venerable Bede.These work of course were completed centuries after the events it describe and the two brothers may well have been legendary and additionally the horse was an important element in the rituals of many ancient peoples, with names derived from the words for horse appearing frequently – the Old English words “Hengest” and “Horsa” meant respectively, “stallion” and “horse”. Reflecting all these characteristics, these Jutish invaders were said to have borne a banner bearing a white horse and it is further speculated that the symbol may have referred to the mythical horse Sleipner, which belonged to the god Odin, venerated by these Germanic warriors. An alternative school of thought postulates that the white horse of Kent is actually derived from the ancient white horses cut into chalk downs and stamped on the coins of more than one pre-Roman British king. However forged though, the link between the emblem of a white horse and the county of Kent was demonstrably established by the heraldic era. Although it has been suggested that the white horse was subsequently used by the Justices of Kent for many years no evidence of such usage has yet come to light. Evidently however, the white horse came to be generally regarded as the emblem of the former kingdom, turned county. Kent County Council, established in 1889, was formally awarded a grant of arms, bearing the white horse, on 17 October 1933