Major Highways of Britain: The A1 Quiz

Answer: The Great North Road

The Great North Road was the traditional mail coach route from London to York and then on to Edinburgh from medieval times onwards. The road was deemed to start at Smithfield Market, although the early 17th Century Hicks Hall in St. John Street was used as the datum point for measuring mileages even after it was demolished in 1782.
The road was replete with coaching inns for feeding and sleeping passengers and for changing horses. In 1658 the first recorded stage coach journey from London to York took four days; by the early 19th Century this had been whittled down to 20 hours, with a further 25 hours or so to get to Edinburgh.
By-passes and detours mean that in many places the A1 no longer follows the route of the Great North Road.

Answer: An open-air rock and pop concert

The Knebworth Festival attracts huge audiences - sometimes over 200,000 - to see bands like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen, the Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Elton John, &c. The traffic jams caused on the A1(M) by people going to and coming from the event are legendary! Badminton Horse Trials, a five-day event, takes place in May at Badminton Hall in Gloucestershire.

Answer: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

Founded in 1891 and granted a royal charter in 1904, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) works to promote conservation and to protect birds. It's one of the largest wildlife conservation organisations in the world: in the year 2021/22 its revenue was £157 million, it had 2,200 employees, 10,500 volunteers and 1.1 million members.

It maintains over 200 bird reserves throughout the UK, and also organises the annual "Big Garden Birdwatch", the world's largest wildlife survey.

Answer: First woman police constable with full powers of arrest

In 1914 Edith Smith was a volunteer with the Women Police Volunteers (WPV), working mainly to combat prostitution in London. When the WPV split Smith joined the Women's Police Service (WPS), and in August 1915 she was sworn in as the first warrented woman police constable, with full constabulary powers (arrest, etc.).

She worked in Grantham, trying to reduce the number of prostitutes in the town. Her appointment seemed to produce results, and by 1917 she was being paid more than the most senior male constables.

She left the WPS in 1918 due to health issues and reverted to her original profession of nursing, but in June 1923 she committed suicide. Elizabeth Garret Anderson became the first woman to qualify as a physician, a surgeon and a member of the British Medical Association in 1867, while Angela Berners-Wilson was the first woman Church of England priest to be ordained in 1994. Ethel Bedford Fenwick was the first person to become a UK State Registered Nurse in 1919.

Answer: They are all the sites of battles in the 14th and 15th Centuries

The four villages are all sites of medieval battles. At the battle at Myton in 1319 local levies fought Scottish raiders, but perished in large numbers as they were pushed into the River Swale. The Battle of Boroughbridge was fought in 1322 between King Edward II and a group of rebellious barons led by the Earl of Lancaster; the latter was defeated and executed.

The battle of Braham Moor was fought in 1408, as Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, rebelled against King Henry IV. Percy died in the engagement. Towton was a significant battle in the Wars of the Roses, fought in 1461.

It was probably the largest and bloodiest battle fought on English soil, with up to 20,000 dead. Yorkist forces led by King Edward IV heavily defeated the Lancastrian forces led by King Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.

Answer: All four towns have racecourses

Wetherby racecourse opened in 1891, and was for many years was a National Hunt course only (ie racing over jumps). Recently it has been used for Flat racing. Thirsk, opened in 1923, is a Flat racing course, as is Catterick which first hosted racing in 1783. Sedgefield opened in about 1732, mainly as a National Hunt course.

Answer: Scotch Corner

Scotch Corner is so-called because it represents a choice point for North-bound traffic on its way to Scotland: it can either carry on up the A1(M) for Edinburgh and Eastern Scotland or it can head up the A66 for Penrith and the M6 to Glasgow and Western Scotland. It has been described as "the modern gateway to Cumbria, the North East and Scotland".
Looking at the incorrect answer options, Spaghetti Junction is on the M6 in Birmingham, Gallows Corner is the junction of the A12 and the A127 in Romford, Essex, and Pennine Junction is fictional.

Answer: Norman (Romanesque)

Saint Cuthbert was the Bishop of Lindisfarne from 685 to 687, but in 875 repeated attacks by the Vikings caused the monks to leave the island, carrying the Saint's remains with them. Eventually they settled on the site of what became the city of Durham.

A church was built, but after the Norman Conquest in 1066 this was replaced by a new cathedral in the Norman or Romanesque style. The foundation stone was laid in 1093; the majority of the building was finished in about 1200. There is a shrine where Saint Cuthbert is buried inside the building.

Answer: Beamish Museum

The Beamish Museum was founded in 1972 on a 350 acre site, and it pioneered the concept of a living museum. It concentrates on the rural and urban societies in North-East England during the Industrial Revolution. It has rebuilt a pub, a cinema, a department store, a terrace of houses and many other buildings, all furnished and equipped as they would have been between 1850 and 1910. The coal mines are particularly impressive. In 2022 the Museum had 789 thousand visitors, making it the most visited paid attraction in North-East England.

The Bowes Museum is also worth visiting, but it's some miles away at Barnard Castle. There is no Tate Gallery North-East, although there is one in Liverpool. The nearest branch of the V&A outside of London is in Dundee.

Answer: A land art sculpture

Northumberlandia (aka the "Lady of the North") is a land sculpture, 34 metres (112 feet) high and 400 metres (1,300 feet) long, made from 1.5 million tonnes of earth from the nearby surface coal mine at Shotton. Opened in 2012, it was designed by the American landscape architect Charles Jencks and depicts a reclining female figure.

The whole site is beautifully landscaped with lakes, meadows, and paths up and around the figure.

Answer: Percy

The Percy family is descended from William de Percy from Percy-en-Auge in Normandy. Arriving in England in 1067, William was made Baron of Topcliffe in Yorkshire, and owned York Castle. Although the male line of the Percy surname died out twice, it was adopted later by the husband or son of a Percy heiress.

The family purchased Alnwick Castle in 1309, and in 1377 was given the title of Earls of Northumberland. The 1st Earl's son, Henry "Hotspur" Percy, featured in Shakespeare's "Henry IV". The title of Duke of Northumberland was created for the family in 1766, and at the time of writing in 2024 the present Duke is the 12th.

Answer: Kippers

Craster has a world-famous smokehouse producing delicious kippers; the village is also a good supplier of crab. Sea urchins, although edible, are not usually eaten in England, while gannet chicks ("guga") are in fact eaten by people in Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Apparently they taste disgusting.

Answer: Oliver Cromwell

After the execution of Charles I in 1649 the Scots accepted Charles II as their King and started recruiting an army to bolster his cause against the republican Parliament in England. Consequently the English army under Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland, and brought the Scottish army to battle at Dunbar.

In a tactical masterpiece on 3 September 1650 Cromwell routed the Scots, taking over half their army captive. The war was settled exactly a year later when on 3 September 1651 Cromwell routed another Scottish army at Worcester. The incorrect answers are all commanders of the Parliamentary armies during the Civil War.

Answer: Edinburgh Waverley

The A1 finishes in Edinburgh at the junction of Princes Street, North Bridge and Regent Road, just by the entrance to Edinburgh Waverley Station. Princes Street Station closed in 1965, and its remnants are now a hotel. Edinburgh Park Station is in the west of the city, very close to Edinburgh Gateway Station.

Answer: 410 miles

From London to Edinburgh is a 410 mile trip by road on the A1 and A1(M) - a drive of about seven-and-a-half hours. The fastest train takes about four hours and twenty minutes.