Who What Where When and Wye Trivia Quiz

Answer: Books

Hay-on-Wye is in Powys, Wales, just over the border from England. However, for postal purposes, it is classed as being in Herefordshire, England, with a postcode starting HR, which causes confusion as to whether it is actually English or Welsh. It has in the region of thirty different bookshops, which includes some specialist ones and many selling secondhand books.

It also holds an annual Festival of Literature in the late spring, which is attended by many well-known authors.

Answer: Monmouth

Rockfield Studios were founded in 1963, and in 1965 became the first studios in the world to offer residential accommodation to bands, allowing them to spend as much time as needed on their recordings. Queen stayed there in 1975 to begin recordings for their album 'A Night at the Opera', although some tracks were recorded elsewhere.

Many bands have recorded there, including Black Sabbath, Coldplay and Paolo Nutini, and the studios' website has a visitors' book showing the signatures of some of these.

Although the name is highly appropriate for a music studio, Rockfield is actually the name of an area in Monmouth. They also offer accommodation for visitors, so you can combine a holiday in a great part of the world with pretending to be a rock star.

Answer: Gate

The rock overlooks a place where the Wye turns back on itself, forming a horseshoe bend, and with Ross-on-Wye in the distance. It is 394 feet (120 metres) high and is visited by hundreds of people every year. In spring, it is possible to view the nest site of a pair of peregrine falcons on the cliffside opposite. RSPB volunteers are on hand to provide telescopes and advice, and ensure that no harm comes to the birds, or the visitors. The rock can be a dangerous place and has claimed many lives over the years.

The name is believed to have come from Robert Symonds, a sheriff of Herefordshire and yat, meaning gate or pass. The village is divided by the Wye into Symonds Yat East, which is in Gloucestershire, and Symonds Yat West, in Herefordshire. To travel from one side to the other by car involves a five mile road journey. Alternatively, people can be taken from one side to the other by a ferry, which is hand operated by pulling on a rope fixed across the river.

Answer: Wordsworth

All the poets listed as classified as English Romantics, but it was Wordsworth who wrote about the Wye Valley. The full title is 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour. July 13 1798'. It includes the lines 'how oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, o Sylvan Wye, thou wanderer through the woods'. It describes a previous visit, five years before, and how thoughts of the scenery he had seen had calmed him since.

Tintern Abbey itself was founded as a Cistercian abbey in 1131 by the Lord of Chepstow, Walter de Clare. It was dissolved in 1536 during the reign of Henry VIII. The remaining ruins are impressive, in a beautiful setting, and inspired the renowned artist, J. M. W. Turner to visit and paint them in both 1792 and 1793.

Answer: 1415

Henry V was born in 1387. His father was Henry Bolingbroke and his mother was Mary de Bohun. Following the death of his father, John of Gaunt, in 1399 Henry Bolingbroke seized the English throne from Richard II and was crowned as King Henry IV in October of that year. Henry V succeeded him in 1413 and reigned until his death in 1422. Agincourt was one of the battles of the Hundred Years War and one of Henry's greatest successes. A statue of him is situated on the Shire Hall in the appropriately named Agincourt Square in Monmouth.

The other dates relate to Henry's year of death and the execution of Joan of Arc in 1431. 1485 is the date of the Battle of Bosworth.

Other notable people with Monmouth connections include Charles Rolls, of Rolls Royce fame, who lived near the town. There is a statue of him in the town, also in Agincourt Square. Jake Thackray, the singer/songwriter who appeared on the television show 'That's Life' also lived there in the years prior to his death in 2002.

Answer: Cambrian Mountains

From its source at 2200 feet on Plynlimon Fawr, the highest peak in the Cambrians, the Wye flows into England, then into the Severn Estuary just below Chepstow. It is the fifth longest river in the UK and, because its waters are relatively unpolluted, it is a mecca for anglers.

The Wye is generally held to be the best salmon fishing river in the UK outside Scotland. The Wye Valley is one of the 47 Areas of Natural Beauty in the UK.

Answer: Cider

Cider and Herefordshire have been linked for centuries, since well before the Roman occupation of Britannia. It even formed part of the wages of farm workers in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has the property of allowing a labourer to work all day in the heat of the harvest because, unlike beer which causes the worker to sweat, cider refreshes. In the days before water treatment plants cider was a safer alternative to water and on occasion it was even used in baptisms!

The largest cider producer in the world is Bulmer's, a Hereford based business founded in 1867 by Percy Bulmer. Bulmer's 'Woodpecker' cider has been enjoyed on every continent. Homemade cider is known as scrumpy and is usually cloudy and stronger than the commercial version.

Answer: Goodrich

Goodrich Castle stands high above Walesford (now known as Walford), near Ross-on-Wye, commanding an excellent view of the ford. Originally called Godric's Castle (it was built by one Godric of Mappestone in the 11th century), by the time of the English Civil War it had morphed into Goodrich Castle and its strategic location made it a prize for both Royalist and Parliamentarian armies. A series of sieges saw the castle changing hands several times and, after a siege that lasted over a year in 1645/46, the castle fell into Royalist hands. The king's army, under the command of Sir Henry Lingen, held Goodrich until 1647 when Parliamentarian colonels Birch and Kyrle attacked, using an enormous mortar called 'Roaring Meg'. Cannon balls from this weapon are on display at the castle. To prevent further use of Goodrich, the castle was slighted, meaning that it was rendered uninhabitable and incapable of being refortified.

The pair of lovers are Alice Birch, niece of Colonel John Birch, and her Royalist lover, Charles Clifford. They drowned in the Wye while attempting to escape from Colonel Birch. People have claimed to hear their dying screams and to have seen their shadowy phantoms are their horses flounder in the river.

As one of the last counties loyal to the Royalist cause, Herefordshire came under strong reprisals during the eleven year long Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell.

Answer: A mediaeval chained library

Among the irreplaceable manuscripts in Hereford Cathedral's chained library are the eighth century Hereford Gospels (the oldest 'book' in the collection) and a fourteenth century copy of John Wycliffe's translation of the Vulgate into English. It is known as the Cider Bible (appropriately) because Wycliffe replaced the term 'strong drink' with 'cider'.

A chained library involves securing a chain to the cover of each book with the othe end of the chain attached to a rod running along the bottom of each shelf. The books are displayed with the open end of the book rather than the spine facing the reader. This way, books could be taken down for study and opened with getting tangled in the chain. Hereford's chained library was installed in 1611 and has its original chains, rods and locks. The manuscripts contained in the chained library indicate that Hereford Cathedral has been a working theological resource since the 12th century, and it continues to be a reference source for scholars.

The Mappa Mundi is a rare mediaeval map of the world and the copy at Hereford is one of the few still extant. The decision by the Cathedral Chapter in 1996 to sell the map to raise funds for the Cathedral caused a national uproar, and donations poured in from all over Britain and other parts of the Anglican Communion to ensure that the Hereford Mappa Mundi remained in the UK. It is now owned by a trust and is on display, with the chained library, in a purpose built building.

Hereford Cathedral does not have a copy of the Magna Carta nor does it have King Ethelbert's crown. As for the Holy Grail, you knew I was kidding, right?

Answer: 26.9kg (59.5 lbs)

In March 1923, Miss Doreen Darcy landed a Wye salmon that weighed in at a whopping 59.5 lbs or 26.98kg, which is a lot of salmon steaks! Those days are long gone and the average size of Wye salmon nowadays is 6.8kg (14.9 lbs). Despite the decline in numbers and size of the salmon, the river still offers the sports angler a good run for his/her money. Catch and release programmes are in effect, under the aegis of the Wye and Usk Foundation which is responsible for improving, restoring and protecting the fishery. The salmon season runs from 3 March to 17 October each year.

Time was when 40 lb 'portmanteau' salmon were common on the river, but over-fishing put an end to such catches. The record prior to Miss Darcy's catch was held by C. Moffat who caught a 43 pounder (19.5kg) in April 1915 on the river near Goodrich. There is a record of a decomposed salmon estimated at 80 lbs which was washed up near Evenpitt Bridge at Holme Lacy.