Template:Did you know nominations/Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Sven Manguard Wha? 00:50, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley

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Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley

  • ... that St Mary the Virgin Church (pictured) has George Washington's family coat of arms in its stained glass windows, which was the inspiration for the flag of the United States?

Created by The C of E (talk). Self nominated at 09:35, 26 March 2014 (UTC).

  • I've made a few minor copyedits but otherwise the article looks fine. Date, length and sourcing check out, but I think the hook is a bit ambiguous - the coat of arms inspired the flag, not the stained glass windows. How does this alternative sound? Prioryman (talk) 10:43, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
  • ALT1: ... that the stained glass windows of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley (pictured) incorporate George Washington's family coat of arms, which inspired the flag of the United States?
  • OK, great. We're good to go then. Prioryman (talk) 14:04, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
  • I'm unconvinced by the supposed sourcing for the final clause of the hook, "which inspired the flag of the United States". FN8 (the BBC source) merely asks the question, "Was this the inspiration for the American flag two centuries later?" That's not enough to hang a hook from. FN9 (the Cornell source) isn't much more help: it says "some hold" that the flag comes from the Washington coat of arms, while "others ... consider the derivation erroneous". Hardly support for a clear statement either way. But the article goes even further than the hook, and says that the arms were used by George Washington himself to make the flag. That's an extraordinary claim, and it's going to need better sourcing to remain. I'd like to point out that there is a Wikipedia article on Coat of arms of George Washington, though its claim that the arms/flag association dates to 1876 is not supported by any sources; sourcing is similarly missing in the architecture section's list entry mentioning Fawsley (fourth from the bottom). BlueMoonset (talk) 06:32, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
  • ALT2 looks okay (I added a necessary comma), but the final sentence in the article needs to either be deleted or rewritten to reflect the actual claim and its uncertainty before the nomination can be approved. (I've struck ALT1.) BlueMoonset (talk) 16:03, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Inline sourcing confirms that ALT2 facts are correct; dubious claim about the Washington coat of arms inspiring the American flag has been removed from the article. Ready for promotion. BlueMoonset (talk) 22:43, 11 April 2014 (UTC)