Major Highways of Britain: The A6, Part 1 Quiz

Answer: The Hatters

Luton Town FC are commonly referred to as the Hatters. Hatmaking became a local industry in Luton from the early 19th century onwards: the Napoleonic Wars blocked imports of straw plait and hats from the continent, so Luton's hat makers set up factories to supply local and national markets with straw hats. Hats are still made in the town, especially by couture makers such as Philip Wright.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, "Carmakers" and "Vauxhalls" refer to the large-scale production of this brand of car for many years in the Luton area, and "Easy Jetters" refers to the budget airline of that name whose head office is in the town.

Answer: John Bunyan

John Bunyan was born in poor circumstances in 1628. After some minimal schooling he joined the Parliamentary army at the age of 16. After three years in the army he returned to Elstow, but he soon started to manifest an interest in nonconformist religion, becoming a preacher. This was sufficient for him to be imprisoned when the restoration of Charles II took place, and he spent many years in prison. During this time and also in a subsequent imprisonment he wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress", which became one of the most published books in the English language.

After his second release from prison Bunyan devoted his life to writing and preaching, but he died at the age of 59. He is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 30th August.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, all three are nonconformist thinkers from the 17th century. Arthur Dent wrote "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven" (1601), Henry Scudder wrote "Christian's Daily Walk" (1627) and Richard Sibbes wrote "The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax" (1630).

Answer: Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller and His Orchestra sold records by the million in the late 1930s and early 1940s with tunes like "Moonlight Serenade", "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (the first-ever gold record), "In the Mood", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "A String of Pearls", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo" and many others. As a member of the US Army Air Forces, he and his orchestra were based in Bedford and travelled to many venues to entertain the troops. On 15 December 1944, he boarded a plane at Twinford Farm to fly to France - and was never seen again.

No trace of the plane has ever been found, but people have proposed many explanations of his disappearance. One likely explanation is that an RAF bomber plane returning from a mission jettisoned undropped bombs over the English Channel and that these bombs hit Miller's plane.

All the incorrect answers are contemporaneous big band leaders.

Answer: He was demonstrating his belief in the Holy Trinity

The Rushton Triangular Lodge, to give it its proper name, is a construction that's totally dominated by the number three. Sir Thomas Tresham, its builder, was a Catholic who spent 15 years in prison for refusing to convert to Protestantism, and after his release he designed the lodge as a testament to his faith.

The lodge has has three walls, each 33 feet long, each with three triangular windows and surmounted by three gargoyles. One wall is inscribed '15', another '93', and the third 'TT' (the date of Tresham's release from prison and his initials). The building has three floors and a triangular chimney. Three Latin texts, each 33 letters long, run around the building on each facade. There are many religious motifs decorating the gables and around the interior of the lodge.

Answer: Gary Lineker

One of English football's most prolific scorers, Gary Lineker was the top goal-scorer in England with three clubs: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. In all he scored a total of 283 goals in 573 appearances, but sadly he won comparatively few trophies, an FA Cup with Spurs in 1991 and a European Cup Winners' Cup with Barcelona in 1989 being the most noticeable.

Lineker has always been an articulate and knowledgeable commentator on football, which explains the large amount of money - about £1.35 million a year - that the BBC have paid him to host its Saturday night football programme. He's also well-known for his left-wing views and for appearing in television commercials for the Leicester-based snack company Walkers.

The three incorrect answer options are all footballers born in Leicester or Leicestershire - it has to be said, all very good players. Shilton is arguably one of the best-ever English goalkeepers.

Answer: Fox hunting

Quorn gives its name to the Quorn Hunt which was established in 1696 and is thus one of the world's oldest fox hunting packs. It had stables in Quorn from 1753 to 1904. Traditional fox hunting was banned in 2004 by the Hunting Act, but the hunt continues to go out on four days of the week during the autumn and winter months. It claims to operate within the constraints of the law.

The "Quorn" trademark for the meat replacement product was previously used for a range of instant food packets named after the Quorn Hunt, but despite carrying out some research, I've yet to discover why the instant food packets should be named after the Hunt.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, they're not as silly as they look! Football matches between villages in which all the menfolk too part have been popular for hundreds of years, and "Conkers" also flourishes every autumn with the horse chestnut harvest. And they have an annual fried rabbit festival in a small hill village in northern Tuscany that I know - it's a bit like the wonderful annual fish and chips festival held in Castelnuova del Garfagnana!

Answer: An air crash

On the evening of 8th January 1989, a Boeing 737-400 jet flying from London Heathrow to Belfast International suffered a broken fan blade in its left engine, filling the cabin with smoke. The pilots thought this indicated a fault in the right engine and shut it down; however, this exacerbated the problem in the left engine and it caught fire. The pilots tried to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport but crashed onto the M1 motorway embankment.

There were 118 passengers and eight crew on the plane, of whom 47 died and 74 were seriously injured. I was living in Belfast at the time, and it seemed to me that everyone knew somebody who'd been on the flight. In fact my line manager at work and his wife were both seriously injured; the man who'd been sitting next to him was killed. It was very traumatic for a small city that had already seen a lot of lives lost.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, fortunately there have been no major coach or train accidents in the area. The A6 murder refers to an incident in 1961 that took place on the A6 between Luton and Bedford, when a man called James Hanratty surprised a young couple in a car, shot and killed the man and then raped and shot the woman; she was left permanently paralysed. Hanratty was caught, tried and found guilty, and executed in April 1962. There was doubt in some circles about his guilt and there was a long-running campaign to have the verdict overturned, but DNA evidence conclusively proved his guilt in 2002.

Answer: Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright (1734-1797) - known as Joseph Wright of Derby - was a portrait and landscape artist, but he's best known for his pictures depicting people engaged in scientific experiments, for example "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" (1768), now in the National Gallery in London and "A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery" (1766), now in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, Blake painted mystical scenes as well as writing "The Tyger", Stubbs painted animals, particularly horses, and Gainsborough was an accomplished portraitist.

Answer: Chatsworth House

Chatsworth House belongs to the Cavendish family (the Dukes of Devonshire) and it's huge! The estate was acquired in 1549 by Sir William Cavendish, Treasurer of the King's Chamber and the husband of Bess of Hardwick. She built the first building on the site in 1553 - she was the richest woman in England after the Queen so she could afford to splash out a bit! Mary Queen of Scots was also housed there a number of times.

After the death of Bess in 1608, the property was bought by William Cavendish, the 1st Earl of Devonshire, for £10,000. A rebuild of the house commenced in 1687, and subsequent owners developed large gardens and stocked the house with works of art. A subsequent modernisation took place between 2004 and 2018, costing £32 million.

The house, gardens and estate are massive tourist attractions, with thousands visiting every day during peak seasons. The Christmas decorations are often astonishing! One interesting thing is that recent Dukes and Duchesses have collected a lot of modern art to display in the house, which makes a pleasant change from corridors full of dull 17th and 18th century ancestors.

All of the incorrect answer options are places in the Peak District. Peveril Castle is a ruined 12th-century castle at Castleton, Haddon Hall is a wonderfully well-preserved medieval building near Chatsworth, and Lyme Park near Disley is an Elizabethan manor house transformed by an Italianate front.

Answer: Almond custard (frangipane) and raspberry jam

A genuine Bakewell tart is filled with frangipane and raspberry jam, with flaked almonds scattered over the top. There is no icing and never, ever, a glace cherry in the middle of the top! It's basically a 20th-century development from the 19th-century Bakewell pudding, but there's no provenance for the latter except to say that it first appeared in about 1836. Anyway, wherever you go in Bakewell it's on the menu, even as an ice cream - they probably even fry it for breakfast!

The three incorrect answer options are basically lemon meringue, tarte tatin and key lime pie - all very delicious but none of them from Bakewell.