Sail On, Silver Girl Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mersey

The Mersey starts in Stockport in Cheshire, and runs through Manchester like the other answers, but is mainly associated with the city of Liverpool; if you look closely at the photo, you can see the two Liver Birds on top of the Liver Building. Liverpool was a thriving centre of maritime trade for centuries (including the slave trade), and is the home of one of Britain's largest dock systems, with its first wet dock being built in 1715. The White Star Line, owner of the Titanic, was based in Liverpool, and today, the Mersey is home to a cruise terminal. In the 20th century, two tunnels were built under the Mersey to connect Liverpool with the Wirral; the Queensway Tunnel to Birkenhead in 1934, and the Kingsway Tunnel to Wallasey (my mum's birthplace, incidentally) in 1971.

The Mersey also inspired the name of Merseybeat, a genre of pop music that developed around Liverpool in the '60s and was influenced by American rock 'n' roll. 'Ferry Across the Mersey' is a song by the Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers, which plays on the ferries carrying tourists back and forth across the river.

Random Mersey fact: Scouse Hindus consider it to be a sacred river, and an annual festival is held on the river, to honour the god Ganesha.

Answer: Isis

The Isis is the section of the Thames that starts in the Cotswolds and merges with the Thame, a tributary of the Thames, in Dorchester. It is not actually named after the Egyptian goddess Isis, but gets its name from the ancient name for the Thames, 'Tamesis'. It is very popular with Oxford University as an area for rowing and regattas, such as Eights Week, an intercollegiate regatta that lasts for four days (the 'Eights' being rowing teams). The Isis is also home to a wide range of freshwater fish, such as barbel, trout, roach, pike and carp, and is a regular fishing spot for the various angling clubs based in Oxford.

Random Isis fact: 'The Isis' is the name of a student newspaper at Oxford University, first published in 1892. Several establishments in Oxford are also named after it, though some have changed their names in the early 21st century because of ISIS also being one of the abbreviations for the Islamic State terrorist group.

Answer: Dee

The city of Chester is famous for its Roman heritage, and was known as Deva in Roman times, and the name Deva is thought to have come from the Dee. It rises in Snowdonia in Wales (where it is called Afon Dyfrdwy), flows through Chester in England and empties into an estuary near the Wirral Peninsula. One of the bridges over the Welsh Dee, Llangollen Bridge, is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of Wales; meanwhile, the English Dee has the Queen's Park Suspension Bridge, where you can find the odd person diving into the river in the summer. This part of the Dee is popular with tourists, who can hire a pedalo or motorboat, or take a river cruise.

Random Dee fact: Aerfen, a Celtic goddess of fate and war, was the personification of the Dee in ancient Wales, and local legends claim that three humans had to be sacrificed to her by drowning them in the river. The Dee was also said to decide the fate of England and Wales whenever both countries went to war; if the river ate away its eastern bank, England would win the war, while Wales would win if the western bank was eroded.

Answer: Wye

The Wye in question, known as 'Afon Gwy' in Welsh, starts in the Welsh mountains at Plymlimon and empties into the Severn Estuary near Chepstow. It is not only one of Britain's longest rivers, but also runs through some of its most beautiful countryside. The river is divided into two parts, the Upper Wye and the Lower Wye; the Wye Valley, situated in the Lower Wye area, is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with dense woodlands and limestone gorges. Ross-on-Wye and Hay-on-Wye are towns located on the banks of the Wye; Ross-on-Wye is in Herefordshire, England, while Hay-on-Wye is in Powys, Wales, and is known for its many bookshops and the Hay Festival, a literary festival.

Random Wye fact: the Wye Valley is home not only to various fossils, but to a colony of lesser horseshoe bats and a population of birds of prey, such as goshawks and peregrine falcons. The Wye is also of historical interest due to its proximity to Offa's Dyke, an earthwork from the Saxon era marking the border between the kingdom of Powys and the English county of Murcia, and the ruins of Tintern Abbey, an abbey built by Cistercian monks.

Answer: Tamar

Tamar is one of David's daughters, who is raped by her half-brother Amnon in the Book of Samuel. The English river is not named after her, but is thought to have derived from an ancient British word for 'dark river', which also gave its name to the Thames. Its source is on the north Cornish coast, and its mouth is at the Hamoaze, an estuary that opens into the Plymouth Sound in Devon.

The bridge spanning the Tamar in the photo is the Tamar Bridge, which runs between Saltash in Cornwall and Plymouth. It was officially opened in 1962, and was built to facilitate traffic between Devon and Cornwall, as the growing amount of road traffic was too much for the ferries from Saltash and Torpoint to manage.

Random Tamar fact: the Tamar Valley is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and also home to a UNESCO Heritage Site, the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. Cornwall was once Britain's tin mining capital, with South Crofty, the last tin mine, closing in 1998. In the late 19th century, it was also a major production centre for arsenic.

Answer: The Yorkshire Ouse

The length of the Yorkshire Ouse is disputed, but is estimated to be around 84 km (52 miles) - and is even longer when combined with the River Ure - while the Sussex Ouse is 56 km (34 miles) long. It is thought to start at the point where the Ouse Gill Beck joins the Ure, though others have argued that it does not have a clear source. One of the cities the Ouse runs through is York, and people can often be seen going for boat rides along it in the summer (as the photo shows); it also runs through Goole and Selby. (Incidentally, the word 'Ouse' rhymes with 'ooze', not 'house'.)

Random Ouse fact: the Ouse Valley is one of the flatter valleys in this quiz, and because of this, heavy rainfall in the river's drainage basin can lead to flooding in nearby towns and villages. A barrier was erected in York in 1989 at the mouth of the River Foss to try and counter this, but floods have become increasingly common in the 21st century, possible as a result of climate change. In 2020, over 3000 acres of fields in Yorkshire were underwater as a result of the Ouse overflowing.

Answer: Newcastle

The Tyne is divided into two parts, the North Tyne and the South Tyne. The North Tyne rises on the border of Scotland, while the South Tyne rises in Cumbria, and the two rivers converge in Hexham; the mouth of the Tyne is at the appropriately named Tynemouth. The full name of Newcastle is Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the Tyne Bridge, pictured in the background, runs between Newcastle and Gateshead. Sunderland's main river is the River Wear, while Middlesbrough has the River Tees and Darlington has the River Skerne, a tributary of the Tees.

(Explanation for non-UK players: the Angel of the North is a statue by Anthony Gormley, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are a pair of Geordie child actors turned TV presenters, and the Magpies is the nickname of Newcastle United FC.)

Random Tyne fact: the Tyne is the subject of a Newcastle folk song, 'The Water of Tyne'. It has been covered by Sting, who comes from nearby Wallsend and who has written several songs about the town's shipbuilding industry. Footballer Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne, a native of Gateshead, and Newcastle folk rockers Lindisfarne also teamed up to sing 'Fog on the Tyne' in 1990.

Answer: Lancashire

There are two English rivers called the Ribble, both of which run through parts of Yorkshire (the other one runs through West Yorkshire), but this one starts near the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire and opens into the Irish Sea at Lytham in Lancashire. Preston Dock, a shipping port that closed in 1981, was built on the Ribble's banks to facilitate transport of textiles, Lancashire being a major centre of the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution.

The Ribble's waters are also a popular breeding ground for salmon, while the Ribble Estuary is home to several species of wildfowl and aquatics birds, such as plovers, swans and oystercatchers. It has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Random Ribble fact: the Mitton Hoard, a treasure hoard of silver coins dating back to the reign of Edward I, was found near the confluence of the Ribble and the River Hodder in Clitheroe, Lancashire. The exact date on which the coins were found is unknown, but it is thought to be between 2006 and 2009. The coins can be seen in Clitheroe Castle Museum.

Answer: Whitby

The North Yorkshire Esk rises in the North Yorkshire Moors, on Westerdale Moor, with its mouth in the North Sea. Like other rivers mentioned in this quiz, it runs by several former mining towns and was once used to transport coal and iron ore; a whale blubber rendering plant was also built on its banks, and was said to have a vile smell. Near the village of Lealholm stands the wonderfully named Crunkly Gill, a ravine carved out by the Esk during the Ice Age.

Whitby, pictured here, is home to the Whitby Goth Weekend, and is a popular tourist spot for 'Dracula' fans due to part of the book being set there. It is also one of northern England's main fishing areas.

Random Esk fact: the Esk is a very popular spot for fishing and boating (especially in the Whitby part, in the latter case). It has large populations of salmon, trout and freshwater pearl mussels, and has several 'leaps' built throughout to help the salmon population migrate.

Answer: Trent

It isn't often that you get two football grounds that are so close to each other, but the City Ground and the Meadows, Notts County's ground, stand on opposite sides of the River Trent. (Trent Reznor is the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails and a music producer, while Trent Alexander-Arnold is a footballer who played for Liverpool.) The Trent is the third longest river in the UK and rises in the Staffordshire village of Biddulph Moor; its mouth is at Trent Falls, where it meets the River Ouse in the Humber estuary. Part of the river also forms a border between the midland counties of Leicestershire and Derbyshire. Besides the football stadiums and the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, another notable landmark on the banks of the Trent is the 12th century Newark Castle.

Random Trent fact: the Trent historically marked the border between the North and the South of England. The medieval Council of the North's area of jurisdiction started at the area of the Trent. Oxford University also had its own North/South divide in the medieval period, with the northern 'nation' containing English students from north of the Trent and Scottish students, while the southern 'nation' contained English students from south of the Trent, and Irish and Welsh students.