Where are England's World Heritage Sites? Quiz

Answer: Somerset

Bath is the largest city in Somerset. The city's history dates from the period of the Roman occupation of Britain, when the Romans built baths and a temple in the area of the Avon valley, creating a spa town that they named Aquae Sulis that was established in the period between 60 and 70 AD.

The spa complex was maintained and expanded over the course of three centuries, which led to the construction of defensive walls. Following the Roman withdrawal, the baths then fell into disrepair. In the 7th century, an abbey was founded that led to Bath becoming a religious centre, while the town was rebuilt during the Anglo-Saxon period, which led to the original Roman street layout lost.

The abbey church was rebuilt in the 16th century, with the completion just a few years before the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, while the city underwent redevelopment initially during the Stuart period, and then to a greater extent in the Georgian, as the curative properties of the waters became more well known. Following conservation efforts starting in the late 1960s, Bath was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1987, primarily for the Roman baths and the Palladian architecture of its Georgian areas.

Answer: Oxfordshire

Blenheim Palace is a large country house located near Woodstock in Oxfordshire. The only non-royal or episcopal residence in the country to be named as a "palace", it was built between 1705 and 1722 for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, as a reward for his victories in the War of the Spanish Succession, which culminated in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, for which the building is named.

The construction of Blenheim was initially part funded by the nation but, following a final quarrel between Marlborough's wife and Queen Anne, which led to the couple going into exile, funding and work ceased between 1712 and 1715. Work resumed, wholly funded by Marlborough following his return in 1715 and continued, overseen by the Duchess even after his death in 1722.

The final completion date is not known, but even as late as 1735 the Duchess was haggling over costs. The building, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in the English Baroque style, became the home of the Churchill family for the next 300 years, and was, in 1875, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Today, although still the home of the Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim, its gardens and park are open to the public.

The palace was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1987.

Answer: Kent

The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury, generally known as Canterbury Cathedral, is one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. Together with the Parish Church of St Martin's, just beyond the city centre of Canterbury, and the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey, the cathedral forms a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The site's history dates from the marriage of King Æthelberht of Kent to the Frankish princess in 580AD. The marriage was undertaken on condition that Bertha, who was Christian, be permitted to continue practising her religion in the still pagan territory of Kent. Æthelberht provided his new wife with an old Romano-British building, which became the Church of St Martin's, to allow her devotions.

In 596AD, following correspondence between Betha and Pope Gregory I, a monk named Augustine was sent as the head of a mission to convert the people of Kent to Christianity. Augustine, appointed as bishop by the Pope, established his see at Canterbury in 597, at the same time founding an abbey for the monks that had come with him.

The abbey, originally dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, was completed in the 620s, and became known as St Augustine's after its founder following his death. The original cathedral was an existing Roman structure that was replaced by a new building in the 9th or 10th century. This was destroyed by fire in 1067, and work on the current cathedral was started in 1070; it was dedicated in 1077. The three buildings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1988.

Answer: Derbyshire

Derwent Valley Mills is the name given to an area covering around 24km of the River Derwent valley in Derbyshire, from the town of Matlock Bath to just north of the city centre of Derby. This area encompasses a large number of settlements, industrial buildings and other sites that were used in the 18th century for the production of textiles. Using technologies and processes developed by Richard Arkwright, most notably the use of water as an industrial power source, the area was a pioneer in the establishment of the factory system of industry, which allowed production to run continuously and, as a result of Arkwright's patenting of his water-frame, meant that cotton could be spun by unskilled workers. Arkwright opened his first mill at Cromford in 1771, with competitors soon following his lead by opening similar facilities at Belper, Darley Abbey and Milford.

The Derwent Valley remained a centre for cotton production until the mid-19th century, when Lancashire, which was better suited for both raw materials and markets, became the centre of the cotton industry.

However, despite the ending of cotton production, many of the structures that were built to service the industry were well preserved and, in 2001, 838 buildings and structures in the area were incorporated into the new Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Answer: Shropshire

Ironbridge Gorge is a cutting containing the River Severn in Shropshire. Formed as a result of glacial overflow at the end of the last ice age, the exposed rock was ideal for the exploitation of various minerals, including coal, iron ore and limestone.

The area around the gorge was a local centre for both for the production of iron and pottery, and, towards the end of the 18th century, began to have developed more modern, industrial methods of production that became prevalent at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

In 1779, in order to link the industrial centre of Broseley with the mining town of Madeley and Coalbrookdale, which was a growing industrial town, a bridge was constructed across the gorge. This bridge, which soon became known simply as the Iron Bridge, was the first anywhere in the world to be made of cast iron, and served as a prototype for the use of the material for construction purposes. Ironbridge Gorge was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986.

Answer: Cheshire

Jodrell Bank Observatory is the site of a number of large radio telescopes that form part of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. The site was first used for astrophysics work in 1945 when physicist and astronomer Bernard Lovell began doing work there on cosmic rays, using radar technology he had worked on during the Second World War.

Although Lovell had planned to conduct this work in Manchester, interference from the city's tram network led to his looking for a more isolated location.

The first radio telescopes were built at the site in 1946 and 1947 and were used until being replaced in the 1950s by the "Mark I Telescope". This facility, the main element of which is its 76.2m diameter steerable dish, was the largest moveable dish radio telescope in the world when completed in 1957, and was the only able to track the launch vehicle of Sputnik 1, which it found in orbit eight days after its launch.

A second, smaller dish telescope, the Mark II, was completed in 1964, with the Mark III opened in 1966. Today, the observatory houses a number of other single dish telescopes, as well as controlling a number of other collaborative observatories.

The Mark I telescope was renamed as the "Lovell Telescope" in honour of Bernard Lovell in 1987, while the entire site was named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2019.

Answer: Cumbria

The Lake District is an area of north-west England famous not just for the lakes that give it its name, but also for forests and mountains (or 'fells'). The Lake District is roughly circular in shape, with a central massif bisected by a radial network of deep glacial valleys.

The precise area that the Lake District covers is not defined, although the Lake District National Park, established in 1951, an area 64km by 51km and encompassing 2,362 sq km, is wholly within the area defined as the Lake District. Today, the Lake District is located wholly within the county of Cumbria, a ceremonial county established in 1974 through the amalgamation of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and parts of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. All of the land in England located 3,000ft or more above sea level, including Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain, as well as England's largest and deepest natural lakes, Windermere and Wast Water, are to be found in the National Park.

The Lake District was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.

Answer: West Yorkshire

Saltaire is a model village near Bradford in West Yorkshire. Originally built by industrialist Sir Titus Salt to house the workers of his textile mill, the village's name is a portmanteau of Salt's own name, and the River Aire on which the village is located.

In the early 1850s, Salt looked to move his business (encompassing five separate mills) away from the centre of Bradford to a better location in terms of transport links, but also to improve conditions for his workers. A site was chosen close to both the Aire, the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, and the railway, where the five mills could be incorporated into a single facility that eventually came to be called Salts Mill.

As part of his planned new community, Salt also built new stone dwellings, wash and bath houses with running water, a hospital, an institute with recreational facilities, a school and parks. Such was the success of Saltaire that it came to be seen as a model of urban planning. Since the demise of the mill, the village has been given significant protections to preserve its buildings and structures, and saw the village be granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2001.

Answer: Wiltshire

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites is an amalgamated World Heritage Site consisting of two separate areas in Wiltshire that are approximately 24km apart. The Stonehenge part is centred on Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle on Salisbury Plain constructed between 3000BC and 2000BC, the purpose of whose construction and use is unknown.

As part of this section of the World Heritage Site, there are a number of other monuments in addition to Stonehenge itself including barrows, other stones and roads.

The Avebury part is a Neolithic monument consisting primarily of three stone circles around the village of Avebury, containing the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. Built roughly contemporaneously with Stonehenge, the main monument consists of a large outer circle, and two smaller inner circles within it.

As with Stonehenge, the purpose of the circles is unknown. Avebury also contains additional structures nearby, including barrows, hills and roads. The two sites were incorporated as a single World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.

Answer: North Yorkshire

Studley Royal Park is located near to the city of Ripon in North Yorkshire. The site contains a number of contrasting features dating from the 11th to the 19th centuries. Fountains Abbey was originally founded in 1132 by a group of former Benedictine monks who elected to instead follow the Cistercian order.

The abbey was dissolved in 1539, and the land sold to Sir Richard Gresham, a merchant, through whose family it passed, eventually being sold to Stephen Proctor who, using some of the stone from the original abbey building, built a new house, Fountain's Hall, on the land. Studley Royal was an estate owned by the Mallory family from the 1450s onwards.

In 1693, John Aislabie, grandson of Sir John Mallory, inherited the estate, and began to extend both the house and its gardens, work that was continued by his son William, who purchased the neighbouring Fountain's Hall and abbey ruins. Together, they created a major example of an 18th century water garden. Today, the site includes both of the houses - Studley Royal House and Fountain's Hall - the abbey ruins, which are some of largest Cistercian ruins in Europe, together with the oldest surviving monastic corn mill, a late Victorian memorial church, a park containing up to 350 deer, plus more than 300 hectares of landscaped water gardens. Studley Royal Park was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.