Q 01/05

By legend, what did a fugitive Alfred the Great let burn while hiding in a Somerset peasant's hut?

A) Porridge

B) Stew

C) Cakes

D) Fish

Answer · why

C) Cakes

The cakes were wheaten ones she had left baking by the fire, and the unrecognised king was roundly scolded when she came back. Wessex alone was still ...

Q 02/05

Lady Godiva's legendary ride to win relief from her husband's taxes went through which town?

A) Coventry

B) Leicester

C) Warwick

D) Lichfield

Answer · why

A) Coventry

Coventry. The phrase 'Peeping Tom' comes from later versions of the legend, in which a tailor who spied on her ride was struck blind.

Q 03/05

Which word for cheap finery comes from 'St Audrey's lace', sold at the Ely fair held in that saint's name?

A) Gaudy

B) Shoddy

C) Tacky

D) Tawdry

Answer · why

D) Tawdry

Tawdry is 'Saint Audrey' run together. Bede says she blamed the neck tumour that killed her on the necklaces of her youth, which is how her fair came ...

Q 04/05

Which title comes from Old English hlāfweard, the 'loaf-ward' who kept bread for his followers?

A) Thane

B) Baron

C) Lord

D) Squire

Answer · why

C) Lord

Lord is literally the loaf-guard: hlāfweard wore down to hlāford and then to one syllable, while a household servant was a hlāfǣta, a 'loaf-eater'.

Q 05/05

In which county did Terry Herbert's metal detector find the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever, in 2009?

A) Suffolk

B) Lincolnshire

C) Northumberland

D) Staffordshire

Answer · why

D) Staffordshire

Staffordshire. Almost every piece is war gear stripped from swords and helmets, with nothing feminine among it, and two local museums paid £3.285 mill...