Major Highways of Britain: The A30, Part 1 Quiz

Answer: Runnymede and the signing of Magna Carta

The National Trust owns about 300 acres of meadowland, woods and heath on both east and west banks of the River Thames at Runnymede. On the east bank there's a small island (known as an "ait") that's thought to be where Magna Carta was signed (or actually, sealed) by King John in 1215: the charter itself refers to Runnymede by name. The island is commonly referred to as "Magna Carta Island".

There are a number of memorials in the area: Sir Edwin Lutyens designed a pair to commemorate Magna Carta, and there's a memorial to US President John F. Kennedy.

I know the A30/A303 route well - in the late 1960s I lived in Essex but I was a student at Exeter, and I used to hitchhike to and fro quite frequently - mainly to go to Southend United football matches! I used to get the tube across London, get off at Hounslow West and walk the 100 yards to the junction of the A4 and the A30 at Henlys roundabout. There was a layby on the A30 about 20 yards after the roundabout so it was an absolutely perfect place to get lifts!

Answer: Royal Holloway, University of London

The college is Royal Holloway, University of London, but it's not related to the Holloway Prison in north London! For many years it was known as Royal Holloway College, and it kept to its women-only status until male postgraduates were admitted in 1945 and male undergraduates were admitted in 1965. It merged with Bedford College in 1985 to form Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, which is now its official title.

It's a very highly-rated college; according to the National Student Survey in 2014 it was in the top 25% of universities in the UK for overall satisfaction, and the 2015 "Times Higher Education World University Rankings" ranked it as 47th in Europe and 118th in the world. It's said to be one of the most selective colleges in the country.

The main college building, known as the Founder's Building, is a wonderful Victorian edifice; it was designed by William Henry Crossland and modeled on the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley. Nikolaus Pevsner said it was "the most ebullient Victorian building in the Home Counties".

Going past on my way to and from Exeter I often used to look at the college and think "what if I'd gone there...".

Answer: The signing of the Sunningdale Agreement in 1973

The Sunningdale Agreement was signed by the British and Irish governments in December 1973 as a route out of the "Troubles" through the establishment of a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The Executive was set up in early 1974, but in May of that year it collapsed due to the effects of the cutting-off of the electricity supply, barricades, shortages, rioting and intimidation organised by the Ulster Workers Council, a loyalist paramilitary grouping that was totally opposed to any involvement of the Irish government in the governance of Northern Ireland. I was living in Belfast at the time and it was all pretty horrific.

The Troubles dragged on for more than 20 years, with Northern Ireland being administered by direct rule from Westminster via a secretary of state. It wasn't until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that a new devolved administration came to be set up - and even this has had its problems. Perceptively, nationalist politician Séamus Mallon described the Good Friday Agreement as 'Sunningdale for slow learners'.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, the Irish Boundary Commission (Coimisiún na Teorann) met throughout Northern Ireland in 1924-25 to decide the precise delineation of the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. It proved controversial and its final report was suppressed until being published in 1969.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London in 1921 to bring an end to the War of Irish Independence, ending British rule in most of Ireland. After a transitional period the Irish Free State was created as a self-governing Dominion in December 1922. Northern Ireland remained within the United Kingdom.

The contract to build the Titanic was signed in Belfast in September 1908 by Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line officials, and William Pirrie, Chairman of Harland and Wolff.

I went on training courses at the Civil Service College a number of times in the late 1980s, and often looked at the photographs of the signing of the Sunningdale Agreement. The college itself was a lovely place to stay and learn - and we had to be ready with our ear plugs every evening for Concorde going over just after 6pm!

Suningdale Park itself is now a retirement home.

Answer: Martians

In H. G. Wells' seminal 1897 book "The War of the Worlds", the narrator reports that an object thought to be a meteor lands on Horsell Common in an area known as the Sandpit. The object turns out to be a large cylinder which opens to disclose Martians who have come to invade the Earth, but who eventually fall victim to common terrestrial pathogens.

Wells lived in Woking subsequent to his marriage in 1895, and regularly walked around Horsell Common. Now, a 23 feet high sculpture of a Martian tripod fighting machine built in 1998 by artist Michael Condron stands close to Woking railway station. A few yards away is a concrete and brick model of a Martian cylinder.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, Rudolf Hess was the Nazi German Deputy Fuhrer to Hitler from 1933 to 1941, when he flew from Germany to Scotland on an abortive peace mission. Amelia Earhart was the pioneering American aviator who in 1937 disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to fly around the world. Oskar Bider was an early Swiss aviator who in 1913 was the first person to fly over the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Answer: The Royal Military Academy (Sandhurst)

The idea of a training centre for British Army officers goes back to the early 19th century, presumably as the rapidly increasing size of the armies involved in the Napoleonic Wars necessitated professional, highly-skilled staff officers. Thus the Royal Military College (RMC) was established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire to provide training for infantry and cavalry officers in the British and Indian Armies. Coincidentally, the French military academy at Saint-Cyr and the American military academy at West Point were also set up at the same time.

In 1812, the RMC moved to Sandhurst and in 1947 it merged with the Royal Military Academy Woolwich (where engineer and gunnery officers were trained) to form the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, commonly known simply as Sandhurst. This is now the current all-discipline initial officer training facility for the whole British Army.

Many of the greatest field commanders in 19th and 20th century British military history have been graduates of Sandhurst, such as Roberts, Allenby, Haig, Wavell and Montgomery. Other graduates have included Winston Churchill, Ayub Khan (former President of Pakistan), Ian Fleming and David Niven (!).

Looking at the three incorrect answer options, the East India Military Seminary in Croydon trained officers for the East India Company's own army in India; it opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. The Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell are the exact equivalents of RMA Sandhurst but are for Royal Navy and Royal Air Force trainee officers respectively.

Answer: Old Sarum

The place with the ruins within a hillfort at Salisbury is known as Old Sarum, and it's the remnants of the original settlement of Salisbury. The site may have been occupied as long ago as 3,000 BCE; the Iron Age hillfort was constructed in about 400 BCE, and in the 6th century CE the Saxons occupied it. The Normans built a castle and a cathedral on the site, then a royal palace was built for King Henry I and was used by the Plantagenet kings for around 300 years.

However, disputes between the Sheriff of Wiltshire and the Bishop of Salisbury resulted in the bishops moving the church down onto the nearby river plain, with a new cathedral being built there in the early 13th century. A new town developed around the cathedral, and the buildings of the old town - which became known as Old Sarum - were dismantled; the old town eventually became totally uninhabited.

Despite this, Old Sarum still returned MPs to the House of Commons - it was a "rotten borough" in the hands of the Pitt family who owned the land. This situation existed until the passing of the Reform Act in 1832.

Looking at the three incorrect answer options, Venta Belgarum is the Roman name for Winchester and Calleva Atrebatum is the Roman name for Silchester. Middle Wallop is a village a few miles away, between Over Wallop and Nether Wallop; it's home to a large airfield that's the base of the Army Air Corps, and an associated Army Flying Museum.

Answer: Edward Heath

Sir Edward Heath (1916-2005, PM 1970-1974) spent the last 20 years of his life living in the Cathedral Close. He was first elected to Parliament in 1950, having served as an artillery officer during WWII. He eventually became minister of Labour, and then after the defeat of the Conservative administration in the General Election of 1964 he was elected as Leader of the Conservative Party in 1965. He lost the 1966 General Election but won in 1970. In his subsequent term of office as prime minister, he led the UK into what became the European Union, but had huge problems with "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

The 1974 miners' strike put the skids under his administration, especially the implementation of the Three-Day Week to conserve energy. He called a general election, which resulted in a hung parliament, so he resigned leaving a minority Labour government. The latter strengthened its hold on Parliament after another general election, and he lost the leadership of the Conservative Party to Margaret Thatcher.

He loathed and detested Thatcher, but stayed on in parliament until he retired in 2001 after more than 50 years as an MP. His house in the Cathedral Close is now a museum to his life and career. In his spare time, he was a yachtsman; he purchased his yacht "Morning Cloud" in 1969 and won that year's Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, and captained Britain's winning team in the Admiral's Cup in 1971. He was also a talented pianist and organist, playing with many orchestras.

The three incorrect answer options were all modern prime ministers: Harold Macmillan (1894-1986, PM 1957-1963), James Callaghan (1912-2005, PM 1976-1979) and Harold Wilson (1916-1995, PM 1964-1970 and 1974-1976).

Answer: Army regimental badges

The Fovant Badges are a group of regimental badges cut into Fovant Down. They were first created during WWI by soldiers garrisoned nearby who were waiting to go to France. There were originally 20 made, of which nine survive; others have been added since. Regiments represented include the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, the Wiltshire Regiment, the 5th, 6th and 8th Battalions of the London Regiment, and the Devonshire Regiment.

Other such images can be found in the surrounding area, mainly of badges and other insignia, but there's also a map of Australia on Compton Down that was created by Australian troops garrisoned in Hurdcott Camp.

The whiteness of the underlying chalk has given rise to many other such images in the area. Perhaps the most famous is the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, which dates to between 1380 and 550 BCE.

Answer: Ridley Scott

The "Boy on Bike" advert was directed by Ridley Scott, and has been voted Britain's favourite advert of all time. It's filmed in almost monochromatic colour, and features the main theme from the slow movement of Dvořák's Symphony Number 9, "From the New World" (more commonly known as the music for the spiritual-like song, "Goin' Home").

Ridley Scott's career is so glittering that it hardly needs reiterating. He made his first film, "The Duellists", in 1977 - I saw it when it first came out and I've loved it ever since. The last scene in particular is superlative film-making. Since then Scott has made "Alien" (1979), the magical "Blade Runner" (1982) and "Gladiator" (2000) - I hope you spotted the clue at the end of the question, quoting a line from the latter film!

Answer: The Glovers

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, Yeovil was a centre of leather production, and a lot of this leather was used locally to make gloves. So Yeovil Town became known as the Glovers.

The club has a remarkable history of giant-killing in the FA Cup - in fact in January 1949, the top-tier side Sunderland were beaten 2-1 in that competition, one of only a handful of occasions when a non-League team has beaten a team from the League's top division. Many people used to put these surprising performances down to the steep slope of the pitch - there was an eight foot drop from one sideline to the other.

Looking at the three incorrect answer options, the Railwaymen is the nickname for Crewe Alexandria, the Shrimpers for Southend United and the Brewers for Burton Albion.