More about Suffolk, England Trivia Quiz

Answer: Three

The answer is three. Suffolk is bordered by Essex to the south, Cambridge to the west and Norfolk to the north. Its eastern boundary is the North Sea.

Answer: Sudbury

Gainsborough developed the technique of putting group portraits in front of a landscape. 'The Blue Boy' and 'The Duchess of Devonshire' are among his better known works. He painted only three seascapes, one of which was a picture of Languard Fort near Felixstowe. The house where he was born is now a museum and art gallery.

Answer: John Peel

John Peel (real name John Ravenscroft) and his wife Sheila moved to Suffolk in the 1970s and raised their four children there. Their Suffolk home was known to radio listeners as 'Peel Acres' and a number of high profile bands, including Blur and The White Stripes, played live broadcasts from Peel's house for his Radio 1 show. John Peel is buried at Great Finborough and the engraving on his tombstone includes a line from his favourite song, "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones.

Answer: Bartholomew Gosnold

Gosnold was Vice Admiral of the expedition that lead to the establishment of the first permanent English speaking colony in North America. The Gosnold family lived at Otley Hall near Ipswich for around 300 years. Martha's Vineyard was named after Gosnold's infant daughter. Sadly, Bartholomew Gosnold died only a few months after arriving in America.

John Ratcliffe (also a Suffolk man and sometimes known as John Sicklemore) and Christopher Newport (from Harwich) sailed on the same expedition as Gosnold; each as captain of their own boat (the Discovery and Susan Constant).
Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay in 1610.

Answer: River Deben

There has been a mill on this site since the twelfth century. The current mill was built in the 1790s and was in use until the 1950s.

Answer: Henry VIII

Henry VIII's favourite sister (after whom his great warship The Mary Rose was named) married King Louis XII of France in 1514. He was much older than she and he died after only a few months of marriage. Mary married her sweetheart, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk in 1515.

Answer: Philip Wilson Steer

Philip Wilson Steer was actually born in Birkenhead, but did some of his paintings along the Suffolk Coast; the area near Southwold has long been popular with artists. The Bridge at Walberswick is a work by Wilson Steer and was used as the title for this film. His best known work is probably 'Children Paddling in the Harbour', painted at Southwold.
The three incorrect answers were all well known artists born in Suffolk.

Answer: William Corder

Maria Marten and William Corder had an illegitimate child together (who died in mysterious circumstances). Maria's family wanted them to marry but it appears Corder killed his lover in order to avoid matrimony. Corder claimed to have sent Maria away so that their marriage should not be known, but a year after leaving her parents' home to be married, her body was found buried below the floor of the Red Barn. Corder was publicly executed in 1828. Maria Marten was buried in St Mary's churchyard, Polstead. According to Arthur Mee in his book 'Suffolk, Our Farthest East', there was such interest in the trial of William Corder that The Times gave a quarter of its space to coverage of it.

William Laud and Margaret Catchpole were notorious local criminals in Suffolk in the late 18th and early 19th century. Richard Cobbold wrote a biography of Margaret Catchpole first published in 1845.

Answer: 1947

2007 is the 60th anniversary of the RSPB at Minsmere. The charity began leasing the land in 1947 because avocets had begun nesting there for the first time. The RSPB leased the land for a number of years but purchased it completely in 1976. Minsmere, one of the RSPB's best known and most visited reserves, is on the Suffolk coast, close to Dunwich.

Answer: Dunwich

The coastline of Suffolk, like many other places in Britain, has been steadily eroded by the sea for centuries. Dunwich has suffered particularly badly and a large area of the village (which was once a town and in Roman times was some four miles from the coast) has disappeared into the North Sea.