British Local History Trivia

1. When was the town first recorded as Bolton?

From Quiz The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

Answer: 1307

The town was first recorded as Bothelton in 1212, Botelton in 1257, Boulton in 1288 and as its present form as Bolton around 1307. The town names derive from Old English "bothl-ton" meaning "village with buildings". Tarbolton, a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland was recorded as Torbolten in 1138 comparable to the origin of Bolton's Old English meaning.

From Quiz The Pendle Witches

Answer: August 1612

The two main families involved had been suspected of witchcraft for many years but there was no proof, only accusations. If a cow died, a barn burned, a child was ill, the local community immediately blamed the witches. It was believed that proof of witchcraft could be obtained by 'swimming' the witches but this was illegal and despite local pressure, the justices refused to obtain proof that way.

From Quiz The Pre-Historic Monuments of Britain

Answer: Avebury

The stone circle complex at Avebury consists of three stone circles, the largest of which has a diameter of 420 metres. Building started around 3,000 years ago and there were many alterations over the next 2,000 years or so. Avebury lies in a landscape that is covered in prehistoric remains.

From Quiz History of Swindon

Answer: The Rising Sun

Nobody seems to know where the name came from - some say it's because of the roaring drunks that frequented it! Not now though - it's a lovely little pub.

From Quiz Winchester Cathedral

Answer: Saint Swithun

Swithun, whose birth date is not recorded, but who died in 862, was Bishop of Winchester in Anglo-Saxon times, probably from 852 until his death. He asked to be buried outside the Cathedral so that people could walk over his grave and so that the rain fall on it. He was buried in the churchyard, but in 971 when the Cathedral was enlarged, his remains were moved inside. Legend has it that it then rained for 40 days and 40 nights - so, it is said that if it rains on St Swithun's Day (15 July) it will rain for the next 40 days. Stephen Gardiner was Bishop of Winchester during the reign of Mary I. He was the officiating priest at her marriage to Philip of Spain. William of Wykeham, in addition to being Bishop of Winchester from 1366-1404, also founded Winchester College, and New College, Oxford. He was Chancellor or England and was involved in the rebuilding of Windsor Castle. Samuel Wilberforce was Bishop of Winchester from 1870-73. He is best known for his opposition to Darwin's Theory of Evolution, but he was also Chaplain to Prince Albert, Bishop of Oxford and a Dean of Westminster.

From Quiz Lancaster Then and Now

Answer: Sometime around 80 CE a market town grew up around a Roman fort.

The town was not originally called Lancaster. The Celts had called the local river "Lune" (clean); the Saxons called groups of Roman buildings a "ceaster," and renamed the Roman fort "Lune Ceaster". Lune Caster became Loncastre (in the Domesday Book) and then Lancaster.

From Quiz Liverpool First

Answer: Commercial wet dock

A dry dock keeps the water level constant by separating the dock from the tidal river. The dock was unique both in its design and how it was used. There was the Howland Great Wet Dock at Rotherhithe in London, which had been built earlier, but it was only a temporary area for vessels to wait unloading. Liverpool's dock was unique because the vessels could be loaded and unloaded at the dockside itself, thus speeding up the process. Known as "The Old Dock", the Liverpool Corporation mortgaged all its land and property to finance the project. With spectacular results for the city's future finances. (Info from Channel 4/Time Team)if you want to know more, including the archaeological excavations to recover the old dock walls.

From Quiz Colchester

Answer: Celtic

The Trinovantes were Celtic, and probably the most powerful tribe in Britain at that time. Their name means 'the vigourous people' and they occupied Essex and about half of Suffolk.

From Quiz Leeds

Answer: About 200

In the Domesday book, Leeds was referred to as 'Ledes'. In 1086, it was recorded that 'Ledes' had a priest, a church and a mill.

From Quiz Walking with Hartlepudlians

Answer: Forest and peat bog

The Hartlepool Submerged Forest is one of the largest areas of preserved ancient forest and peat bog known. Some of the area is exposed at each low tide, while other preserved, fossilised tree stumps are only visible every few years when weather conditions and tides are just right. A two metre length of wattle fencing panel excavated in the 1980s was radiocarbon dated to around 3,600 BC.

From Quiz Old Derby and Derbyshire

Answer: 86

And this wasn't counting the Salvation Army, Christadelphians and Plymouth Brethren.

From Quiz Suburbs of Derby : 2

Answer: Bolton

Bolton first appears in the Domesday Book in 1086. The church is of Norman origin, which suggests it existed the 12th century. In the 20th century it joined with the parish of Alvaston.

From Quiz Suburbs of Derby

Answer: California

It's reasonable to assume the name has some association with the Californian gold rush of 1849 but the history of this area of Derby doesn't tell us why. It's situated roughly between Mackworth and Rowditch.

From Quiz Derby Through the Ages

Answer: Cockpit Hill

The Saxon Chronicle tells us that the Danes once built a castle and that it was stormed and taken over by Ethelfleda c. 945. It is likely that it would have been made out of timber rather than stone which would explain why no trace of it has been found.

From Quiz Victorian Derby

Answer: Thomas Bass

Thomas Bass presented the land to the people of Derby and it subsequently became known as 'The Bass Rec', and has been in use ever since.

From Quiz Lytham Through the Ages

Answer: Lancashire

Lancashire is in the North West of England and is known as the Red Rose County. It encompassed Liverpool and parts of Greater Manchester until boundary reorganisations in 1974. Currently its population is 1.4 million. The county town is Preston which was made a city in the Queens Golden Jubilee year (2002).

From Quiz The Witches of Pendle

Answer: 1612

The trial of eleven of the witches commenced on Tuesday, 18th August 1612. It lasted just two days and on the third day all but one were were executed. The trial was annotated in writing by Clerk of the Court Thomas Potts. The other trial was in York and is commented upon in other "interesting facts" notes.

From Quiz Historic Hastings

Answer: iron

The Weald of Sussex, a range of wooded sandstone hills which reaches the sea at Hastings, was an important source of iron in earlier times, since it had the ore and also plenty of timber which provided charcoal to smelt it. With the development of coke-fuelled furnaces in the Industrial Revolution, iron production in England moved to the Midlands and the North . At Hastings, the remains of Roman iron workings have been uncovered at Beauport Park on the north-western edge of the town.

From Quiz Newcastle upon Tyne

Answer: 1080

1080 - The Normans first built a wooden fort, a 'motte and bailey' castle at the lowest place where the Tyne could easily be crossed to safeguard the bridge. A small town then grew up around the castle resulting in the name of Newcastle. (How original!)

From Quiz History of Lincoln, England

Answer: AD 48

The Romans first built a garrison to guard the northern extremes of the empire. They later built a walled town to house demobbed soldiers.

From Quiz Greater Manchester - A Municipal County

Answer: Bolton

Samuel Crompton (1753-1827) was the inventor of the spinning mule, which permitted large-scale manufacture of high-quality thread and yarn which revolutionized the cotton industry. It was an improvement on the spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves. Unfortunately, he died in poverty and is buried in St. Peters Church (Bolton Parish Church) in the center of Bolton.

From Quiz The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

Answer: Ye Olde Man & Scythe Inn

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby (1607 - 1651) was beheaded for his part in the Bolton Massacre, part of the Civil War, which occurred in 1644. The Man & Scythe Inn was owned by his family at that time. The earliest recorded mention of its name is in a charter from 1251, making it one of the ten oldest public houses in Britain and the oldest in Bolton.

From Quiz The Pendle Witches

Answer: Daemonologie

James I travelled to Denmark to marry Anne of Denmark. The Danish people were terrified of witches. On the way back to England, there was a great storm which James believed was caused by the North Berwick Witches who were immediately put on trial. James attended their trial and wrote the Daemonologie afterwards.

From Quiz The History of Portsmouth

Answer: A Royal Charter

In addition to the market, fair and court, Portsmouth's first Royal Charter also granted its inhabitants exemption from certain national taxation to allow the money to be used to improve local facilities. Although the text of the charter is known, the actual document itself has been lost over the centuries. In 1994 the city hosted a special celebration of its 800 years of history to mark the anniversary of the granting of this charter. Portsmouth was later granted additional Royal Charters by King John in 1200 (which confirmed the rights previously granted by his late brother) and King Edward II in 1313 - the latter document is the oldest surviving Royal Charter to Portsmouth The Order of the Garter is a chivalric order established by King Edward III in 1348; Royal Assent is the process by which the monarch approves an Act of Parliament.

From Quiz A Brief History of Weymouth and Portland

Answer: Bird watching

Often referred to locally as the 'Backwater', the freshwater Radipole Lake is separated from Weymouth's harbour by a bridge and a series of sluice gates and, unusually for a nature reserve, it is virtually located in the centre of the town. Between the 1950s and the early 1980s, the lake and its surroundings provided a number of popular leisure facilities; these included a fairground, pleasure boats and pedaloes, all now sadly gone. The nature reserve itself is administered by the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Radipole Lake is home to a wide range of both resident and migratory birds such as the Heron, Shelduck, Canada Goose and at least two species of Swan. Rarer visitors such as the Bittern and some of the more uncommon species of Warblers and Buntings can also be seen within the reserve.

From Quiz Somerset's Place in History

Answer: Stanton Drew

The Stanton Drew Henge, a few miles south of Bristol, is 113 metres in diameter, has 27 stones still standing out of the original 30, and is second in size only to Avebury, in neighbouring Wiltshire. Recent geophysical surveys have revealed 9 concentric rings of post-holes (over 400 in all) inside the circle. This has prompted a major rethink about Stanton Drew's prehistoric importance. The Sweet Track is a 5,000 year old wooden causeway found in the Somerset Levels. It is claimed to be the oldest road in the world. Priddy is a village in the Mendip Hills where there is an alignment of ditch-and-bank enclosures roughly contemporary with Stonehenge. Near to Priddy is Maesbury, one of the UK's best-preserved Iron Age hill-forts.

From Quiz The Pre-Historic Monuments of Britain

Answer: Trilithons

'Tri' - meaning 'three' and 'lith' meaning stones. Like Avebury, Stonehenge was adapted and altered over the millenia. One of the most interesting features are the small "blue stones" which came all the way from South West Wales.

From Quiz History of Swindon

Answer: A red light district

In its day, it was said that in Little London "any vice may be witnessed or indulged in." Changed quite a bit now, though!

From Quiz Winchester Cathedral

Answer: William Walker

Winchester Cathedral is surrounded by water meadows and a floodplain. In the early 1900s waterlogged foundations to the south and east walls meant that the whole building was in grave danger of collapse. William Walker worked underwater, at depths of up to twenty feet, in the dark, for six hours a day for six years (1906 to 1912) packing the foundations with bags of concrete, concrete blocks and bricks. His work is credited with saving the cathedral. A bust of him in the crypt, which still floods, commemorates his work.

From Quiz Lancaster Then and Now

Answer: a prison

This was, of course, long before charters gave townspeople any part of self-governance. The 1193 charter gave the townspeople the right to hold a weekly market, and permission to hold a "fair" (a big market drawing merchants and customers from a distance) annually. Lancaster University was not established until 1964!

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