The County of Buckinghamshire Trivia Quiz

Answer: 7

The historic county of Buckinghamshire borders seven other counties: Middlesex, Surrey, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The border with Surrey is only a few miles long.

Answer: Aylesbury

Although the county is named after Buckingham, Aylesbury became the county town in the sixteenth century. Other than Aylesbury's more central location, one possible reason for this was Henry VIII's desire to please Anne Boleyn's father, Thomas Boleyn who was a prominent landowner in the town. Incidentally, High Wycombe, Milton Keynes and Slough are all larger than Aylesbury.

Answer: 4

The M1 near Milton Keynes, the M40 near High Wycombe and the M25 near Denham. The other is the M4 - perhaps surprising considering the loss of Slough in the modern ceremonial county. The M4 motorway does however still enter the county, if only for a mile or so.

Answer: Berkshire

Buckinghamshire borders two counties along the Thames: Berkshire and Surrey.

Answer: Stowe Landscape Gardens

Stowe Landscape Gardens is a few miles north of Buckingham, near the county border with Northamptonshire. Waddesdon Manor is a few miles north-west of Aylesbury. Boarstall Tower is in the very west of the county, on the border with Oxfordshire. Hughenden Manor is in the south of the county, just north of High Wycombe.

Answer: Cheddington

Perhaps surprisingly, the small village of Cheddington was the first to get its station in 1838, when the London and Birmingham Railway opened. Aylesbury High Street was next in 1839, at the end of a short branch line from Cheddington; it was the first railway branch line in the world. Considering its position as the 'Furniture Capital of England', High Wycombe had to wait quite a long time for its station to open in 1854. Milton Keynes, being a new town, could rely on the existing stations along the West Coast Main Line in the area until 1982, when it got its own station.

Answer: Hambleden

Though named for the Buckinghamshire village, Hambleden Lock is on the Berkshire bank of the river. Conversely, although named after the Berkshire village, Bray Lock can be found on the Buckinghamshire bank, as can Marlow and Boveney Locks; those places are in Buckinghamshire however.

Answer: 0

To become a county borough, a town had to have a population over 50,000. At that time, Buckinghamshire had no large population areas, so no towns qualified.

Answer: Agatha Christie

John Milton came to Chalfont St Giles, situated in the south of the county in 1665 to escape the Great Plague. It was there that he completed his epic poem 'Paradise Lost' and begun 'Paradise Regained'. His cottage there is his only surviving home. Roald Dahl moved to Great Missenden in the 1950s and lived there until his death in 1990. Most of his best loved novels were written in a shed he kept in his garden there. Enid Blyton lived in Beaconsfield, also in the south of the county, in a house called 'Green Hedges' named by her readers' in a competition.

Answer: 9

Nine postcode areas cover the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, MK (Milton Keynes), HP (Hemel Hempstead) and SL (Slough) cover the bulk of the county north-south, but six others cover smaller parts of the county: RG (Reading), OX (Oxford), NN (Northampton), LU (Luton), WD (Watford) and UX (Uxbridge).