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Most flagpoles will be supplied with a halyard system. For lowering and raising a flag you use a halyard which is a length of rope or thick cord.

A simple system of attaching the flag to the halyard with a toggle is mainly used in the UK.

External halyard system

There are internal and external halyard systems. The rope has two ends with the external halyard system. Itruns up the outside of the flagpole, at the top it is threaded through the finial and comes out the other side of the finial and runsdown the flagpole. This end of the rope is formed into a secure loop – to prevent the toggle from falling out. The other end of the rope will be at the bottom of the flagpole. Theflag should be attached to its left hand side with a heading, line and toggle. The toggle denotes the top of the flag and a short length of line or rope comes out of the bottom of the flag heading. You want to create an endless length of halyard. Push the toggle through the loop that was made in the halyard and make sure it is secure.  The other end of the rope at the bottom of the flagpole needs to be tied to the short length of rope coming out of the bottom of the flag.

You can now pull on the halyard tohoist the flag to the top. On the side of the flagpole, there is a cleat for tying off the excess rope. The flag needs to be right at the top and everything is tight and secure.

Internal halyard system

If you have an internal halyard system the procedure is similar. You have, however,only one end of halyard. You connect this end to the flag. It will come out of the finial at the top of the flagpole. Inside the flagpole, you will have the other end of the halyard – fixed to the bottom. You can't see it. Attached to the loop in the end of the halyard, you will have the toggle fitted to the flag – just like it is done in the previous example. There is a difference though: the short length of line coming out the bottom of the flag is attached to a weight. This weight mostly takes the form of a sling that wraps around the flagpole. Now securely attach the short length of line from the flag to the weight. H oist the flag using the internal halyard system.

When you are not flying a flag we suggest you attach the halyard end to the weight and pull it up the flagpole – out of reach from vandals. If you pull the halyard up to the top without the weight it is unlikely that you get the end of the halyard down to the bottom again.

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