Real Deal or Fakenham? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Colston Bassett

Wilkie Bard, Vesta Victoria and the wonderfully named Barclay Gammon were all music hall stars from the golden age of the art, between the mid 19th century and 1920.
Barclay Gammon holds a place in history as the first music hall act to appear in a Royal Variety Show, when he did so in 1912, in front of King George V, Queen Mary and Edward, Prince of Wales.

Colston Bassett is a Nottinghamshire village, famed for its production of blue Stilton cheese, and is one of only five locations permitted to use the name Stilton.
The unusual name of the village is derived from the Old Norse name "Kolr" and the Old English word, "tun", which were joined to become "Kolr's tun" or Kolr's farm. The addition of Bassett came in the 12th century, when a judge, Ralph Bassett, became the landowner.

Answer: Queen Camel

King vultures are found in Central and South America, the emperor tamarin lives in the southwest Amazon Basin and the pharaoh ant is a pest throughout most of the world, leaving the Somerset village of Queen Camel.
Queen Camel has nothing to do with camels, as the name is believed to derive from the Celtic words "canto" meaning district and "mael" meaning bare hill. The queen in question is said to be the wife of Henry III, Queen Eleanor, who was a major landowner in the area during the 13th century.
To add further confusion, Wales is part of the civil parish of Queen Camel, although the Wales in question is a very small hamlet, not the country of dragons and daffodils.

Answer: Nether Wallop

Nether Wallop is a Hampshire village, just east of Over Wallop and Middle Wallop. Nether is another word for "lower", while the "wallop" of the three villages is derived from the Old English words "waella" and "hop", which combine to mean "the valley of springing water".

The baggy green is the name given to the cap worn with pride by Australian Test cricketers while cow corner is an area within the cricket ground where balls are rarely hit by batsmen. The theory is that there is no need to place fielders there as the area is so untroubled that cows could graze there uninterrupted. A dibbly dobbly is a medium paced delivery from a bowler, which has no special features such as spin to it.

Answer: Marsh Gibbon

Green monkey, Milton's titi and pygmy marmoset are all genuine members of the primate family and while there are several species of gibbon, a marsh gibbon isn't one of them.

Marsh Gibbon is a beautiful little village in Buckinghamshire, on the border with the neighbouring county of Oxfordshire. The "marsh" of the village name refers to the land in the area and the "gibbon" is derived from the Gibwen family, who were lords of the manor during the 12th century.

Answer: Wetwang

Barrel fever was the name by which alcoholism was referred to, while bronze john is an archaic term for yellow fever. Scrumpox is a wonderfully sounding word, and is a highly contagious skin disease, usually caused by the herpes simplex virus. It is known as herpes gladiatorum and is often referred to as scrumpox due to it being easily transmitted during scrums in the game of rugby, when the combination of skin lesions and the abrasive effects of facial stubble help transmission.

Wetwang may sound like a particularly embarrassing disease, but it is in fact a village in the Yorkshire Wolds. The origins of the village name are unclear, but it is believed that as "wang" was an Old English term for a field, Wetwang differentiated the area from nearby Driffield (dry field).

Answer: Upton Snodsbury

Four names, each of which would make wonderful names for fencers or villages. Unfortunately, Upton Snodsbury may have fences, but alas, has never fenced. This delightful village in Worcestershire was known for the many orchards in the area and today attracts many visitors to view the Grade II listed "black and white" timber framed houses, of which there are over 25 in the village. The name of the village roughly translates from Old English as a "higher farm or settlement next to Snode's fortification", with Snode being an Anglo Saxon chieftain.

Egerton Castle captained the British epee and sabre teams at the 1908 Olympics in London while Gytte Minton also competed in London, at the 1948 Olympics, where she took part in the women's individual foil event. Olgierd Porebski was born in Poland, but competed for Team GB at the 1952 Helsinki Games and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in both the individual and team sabre events.

Answer: Nasty

There is a long list of dwarf names rejected by Walt Disney, which includes such delights as Flabby, Cranky, Dirty, Tubby, Wheezy and Slutty. I think that most would agree he made the right choices in the end when he did finally decide on the names.

Nasty is not a dwarf although it is very small, being a hamlet in Hertfordshire, near the town of Stevenage. The name derives from the Anglo Saxon, meaning "at the eastern hedged enclosure", which is quite the mouthful. Nasty is much easier to say and should one want to put together a UK place names list of seven dwarfs possibilities, fits quite nicely with the villages of Idle, Lusty, Dull, Seething, Loose and Ugley.

Answer: Sheepy Parva

Braxy is a usually fatal bacterial infection which strikes lambs and young sheep and sheep scab is a form of dermatitis spread by sheep mites. Lumpy wool may sound like something from a Monty Python sketch but it is a bacteria, also called mycotic dermatitis, in which hard scabs form on the skin, giving the impression of lumpy wool.

Sheepy Parva is a hamlet in Leicestershire, near another small village called Sheepy Magna. In the 1770s, the grain mill at Sheepy Parva was the largest in England and a major employer in the area.
The "sheepy" part of the hamlets name is derived from the Old English for sheep and island, with the island understood to be referring to an area of dry land in a marshy area.
Parva is Latin for small, giving us "small sheep island" as opposed to "large sheep island" or Sheepy Magna.

Answer: Shepton Mallet

Shepton Mallet in Somerset is the closest town to the world famous Glastonbury festival and is a thriving market town. The town's name simply means Mallet's sheep farm, as the "Shepton" part is derived from the Old English words, "scoep" meaning sheep and "tun" meaning farm, while "Mallet" comes from Gilbert Malet, who held a lease from Glastonbury Abbey circa 1100. The additional letter "l" to the town's name first appeared in the 16th century, for reasons unknown.

Shallet Turner was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge from 1735 until 1762, while Goldwin Smith and Lyndal Roper have both held the position at Oxford. Smith was incumbent between 1858 and 1866, while Roper took up her appointment in 2011, becoming the first woman, and the first Australian to hold the post.

Answer: Bodiggo

Prince Fortibras can be found in "Hamlet" (1603) and Tranio is Lucentio's servant in "The Taming of the Shrew" (1594). Dogberry is a bumbling police constable found in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1600), leaving Bodiggo.

Bodiggo may sound like it should be a character in the works of the bard, but it us actually a Cornish hamlet, not far from St Austell. Bodiggo was described in the Domesday Book of 1086 but there seems to be no information regarding the etymology of the hamlet name.