In Which County Are These Towns? Quiz

Answer: Hampshire

The 9th-largest English county by area (and 5th-largest by population at the 2011 Census), Hampshire is about half the size of Hong Kong. Its three cities are Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester (once the capital of England). The county lost its fourth city (Bournemouth) and about 20% of its size to neighbouring Dorset in the 1974 reorganisation of local government. The largest town in the county is Basingstoke.

Waterlooville, the largest of the towns named in the question, is located some ten miles north of Portsmouth in the east of the county. Farnborough, whose name was originally 'Ferneberga' (meaning "fern hill"), dates back to Saxon times although it is now best-known for its week-long international airshow. Eastleigh, located between Southampton and Winchester, is perhaps best-known as one of the few Liberal Democrat strongholds remaining in the country. Fleet, the smallest of the four towns named (population 38,000 at the 2011 Census) is just 36 miles southwest of London. It shares its name with the service station on the M3.

Answer: Suffolk

Known as "Constable Country", after one of England's greatest painters, Suffolk is England's 8th-largest county (about the same size as the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic). Having no city within its borders, Suffolk is one of the least-densely populated counties, with almost 20% of its 730,000 (2011 Census) people living in its largest town, Ipswich. The county had only six towns with a population greater than 20,000 per the 2011 Census, Ipswich and the racing centre of Newmarket being the only ones other than those listed in the question.

110 miles northeast of London on the North Sea coast, Lowestoft is the most easterly settlement in England. Modern discoveries here have placed humans in the region some 700,000 years ago, making it one of Britain's earliest known sites of human habitation. Originally called Beodericsworth, the market town of Bury St. Edmunds was founded in 1080 and has a long association with the brewing industry. Haverhill, in the extreme southwest corner of Suffolk, lies just 15 miles southeast of Cambridge. Founded in Saxon times, its market is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, although most of the ancient town was destroyed in a 1667 fire. Felixstowe, located on the county's southeast coast, is best-known as Britain's largest container port. The town was bombed by a Zeppelin during WWI and was one of the few English towns bombed by the Italian Air Force during WWII.

Answer: Tyne and Wear

Located around the mouths of the two rives for which it was named and created by the 1972 Local Government Act, Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in the northeast of England. The major settlements in the county are the cities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland plus the metropolitan boroughs of South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Gateshead. One of the five smallest of England's 48 counties and metropolitan areas, Tyne and Wear has an area of just 209 square miles (slightly larger than the Principality of Andorra), but with a population of more than 1.1 million (2011 Census).

The town of Gateshead lies on the south side of the Tyne, opposite Newcastle-upon-Tyne: the Gateshead Millennium Bridge is one of seven crossings that connect the two. The town is perhaps best-known for its athletics team, the Gateshead Harriers and the Gateshead International Stadium, the venue for numerous major international athletics events. The historic town of Jarrow is located on the site of a 1st-century Roman fort. The town itself, then called 'Gyruum' ("marsh-dwellers") was home to England's most famous monk, the Venerable Bede, in the 8th-century. In 1936, it was the starting point for the famous "Jarrow March", a protest against unemployment and poverty. Designated as a new town in 1964, Washington was in the county of Durham prior to the 1974 reorganization and is located equidistant from the cities of Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Historically part of Northumberland and dating back to the early 12th-century, Whitley Bay is a seaside resort on the North Sea coast in the northeast corner of Tyne and Wear.

Answer: Herefordshire

Located on England's border with Wales, abutting the Welsh counties of Powys, Gwent and Monmouthshire, Herefordshire is a mid-sized country. Ranked 26 out of 48 in terms of area, Herefordshire is a little smaller than Luxembourg, but it is near the bottom of the rankings with one of the lowest population densities. The county town is the cathedral city of Hereford.

Known as 'Llanllieni' on the Welsh side of the border, the market town of Leominster in the north of the county is the largest of the towns that surround the county seat. The town dates back to Saxon times and the priory was founded in 1121. Ross-on-Wye lies in the south of Herefordshire on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean. Credited as the birthplace of the British tourist industry, the town is best-known today for its independent shops and picturesque streets. Ledbury, in the Malvern Hills to the east of Hereford, is the home of numerous timber-framed buildings from the early 17th century and earlier. Founded in 690, it was called 'Liedeberge' in the Domesday Book. The small market town of Kington lies just to the west of Offa's Dyke and was, therefore, within Welsh territory in the 8th century. The town was named 'Chingtune' in the Domesday Book and 'Kyneton in the Fields' a century later. The 'Black Dog of Hergest', thought to be the inspiration for Conan Doyle's "Hound of the Baskervilles", is said to haunt the area.

Answer: Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a mid-sized county in terms of area (it is about half the size of the Caribbean island of Trinidad). Located in the East Midlands, it lies at the southern end of the Pennines. Nowhere in Britain is further from the sea than the Derbyshire village of Coton in the Elms in the southern extreme of the county. The country contains one city (Derby) and one town (chesterfield) with populations of more than 100,000 (2011 Census).

Nine miles east of Derby and seven miles southwest of Nottingham, Long Eaton is technically part of the Nottingham Urban Area but it lies just on the Derbyshire side of the border, in the southeast corner of the county. The town was known at the time of the Domesday Book, when it was called 'Aitone', meaning "farm between streams" or "low lying land". Previously called Sivardingescote and Swartlincote and recorded as a 'small manor' in the Domesday Book, Swadincote lies 12 miles south of Derby and is the largest town in South Derbyshire. A small hamlet dating back to Saxon times, the market town of Glossop developed thnks to the cotton industry. It lies in the region of north of Derbyshire known as 'High Peak' and is just 15 miles east of Manchester and 24 miles west of Sheffield. Called Belesovre at the time of the \domesday Book, Bolsover is a small town just east of Chesterfield. It stands on the M1 motorway 145 miles north of London.

Answer: Wiltshire

About half the size of the island of East Falkland, part of the British territory of the Falkland Islands, Wiltshire is England's 14th-largest county in terms of area but well below halfway in population. The country's largest town is Swindon. The county's only city is Salisbury, although the county seat has been Trowbridge since 1930. A major industry within the county is carpet weaving, centred in the historic town of Wilton, which preceded Trowbridge as the county's capital.

Royal Wootton Bassett is a small market town near the M4 motorway, six miles east of Swindon in the north of the county. Queen Elizabeth II granted the town royal patronage in 2011 (the first town so honoured in more than a century) in recognition of its role in military funeral repatriations from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Marlborough is a market town on the old London-to-Bath road: the only British town with a wider High Street is Stockton-On-Tees (in County Durham). The reputed burial place of King Arthur's wizard, the town derives its name from "Merlin's Barrow". Developed around an 11-th century Norman castle, the market town of Devizes in the centre of the county is notable for more than 500 listed buildings. Located ten miles east of Bath in the west of Wiltshire, the town of Melksham began life as a royal estate at the time of the Norman Conquest.

Answer: Lancashire

Lancashire is the 14th-largest county in area, about twice the size of the Greek island of Rhodes. Lancaster is the county town but the city of Preston is the administrative centre. Burnley, Blackburn and Blackpool are all sizeable towns within the county.

The town of Fleetwood, on the Irish Sea coast just north of Blackpool, was England's first planned community of the Victorian era. The market town of Chorley in the south of the county lies just north of the town of Wigan, across the border into Greater Manchester. Once dominated by the cotton industry, it is now best known as the home of the cake that bears its name. The small town of Clitheroe in the east of the county is a popular destination for tourists visiting the Ribble Valley and the Forest of Bowland. The 12th-century Clitheroe Castle has one of the smallest of Britain's Norman keeps. Human settlement of the site of the market town of Darwen, just south of Blackburn, dates back to the early Bronze era, some 4,000 years ago. The 85-foot high Darwen Jubillee Tower, erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897, overlooks the town.

Answer: Lincolnshire

About the same size as the Danish island of Zealand, Lincolnshire is England's 2nd-largest country (after North Yorkshire). With a population of only just over one million in 2011 (per the Census) it was only the 18th-largest in those terms. The largest settlements in the county and the cathedral city of Lincoln and the seaport of Grimsby.

Knon at the time of the Domesday Book as 'Escumesthorpe', the industrial town of Scunthorpe in the north of the county is nicknamed the "Industrial Garden Town". It is home to England's largest steel-processing centre. The seaside resort and fishing town of Cleethorpes lies on the Humber Estuary, on the North Sea coast in the north of Lincolnshire. There has been permanent human occupancy here since at least the 6th-century. The market town of Spalding in the south of the county lies at the centre of England's largest tulip-producing region. The Spalding Flower Parade has attracted international visitors annusally since 1959. The town of Gainsborough on the extreme western edge of the county lies more than 50 miles from the North Sea on the River Trent and is England's most inland port. During the Anglo-Saxon period preceding Danish rule, it was one of the capital cities of the Kingdom of Mercia.

Answer: Gloucestershire

Ranking 16th-largest in terms of area, Gloucestershire is little more than half the size of Prince Edward Island, Canada's smallest province. The River Severn passes through the county, which includes part of the Cotswolds and the whole of the Forest of Dean. The only city within the county is the capital, Gloucester. The largest towns include Cirencester, Tewkesbury and Cheltenham.

Located the west of the Cotswolds in the centre of the county, the market town of Stroud dates back to the early 13th century. Lying at the heart of sheep-farming country, the town was once known for its hydro-powered woolen mills. The small town of Cinderford, located in the Forest of Dean in the northwest of the county, developed as a mining town for iron and coal during the 19th century. Located on the historic Fosse Way in the northeast of Gloucestershire, the market town of Stow-on-the-Wold was founded in Norman times. Originally called 'Edwardstow' after its patron saint, Edward the Martyr, it was granted a royal charter for fairs in 1330. The market town of Wotton-under-Edge in the south of the county was originally called 'Wudetun' ("houses in the wood") when it was granted a Royal Charter in 940 by King Edmund I.

Answer: Buckinghamshire

Ranking 32nd out of England's 48 counties in terms of area, Buckinghamshire is half the size of New York's Long Island and a third the size of the popular Indonesian holiday island of Bali. There are no cities within Buckinghamshire. The county's largest settlement is Milton Keynes, founded as a new town in 1967.

Called 'Mere lafan' (from Old English meaning "Land left after the draining of a pond") in the early 11th century, the town of Marlow lies on the River Thames 30 miles upstream from central London. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, the name had changed to something closer to that used today, 'Merlaue'. The town of Gerrards Cross, in the foothills of the Chilterns in the southeast of the county, is just 20 miles northwest of central London. The town of Princes Risborough in the centre of Buckinghamshire is overlooked by the spectacular chalk-hill carving known as the "Whiteleaf Cross". The Black Prince was lord of the manor here in the days before he left England to fight in the Battle of Crecy. Aylesbury, the third-largest town in the county after Milton Keynes and High Wycombe, is the county seat. The town stands on the site of an Iron Age hill fort dating to the 4th-century, when it was one of the major strongholds of the ancient Britons. It was originally known as 'Ęglesburgh', and it has undergone a remarkable 50+ recorded name changes over the past 1,500+ years.