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 staged a Godiva procession from 1678 into the 1960s, and 'Peeping Tom' comes from later versions in which one man, a tailor, spied on her rid...

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 'St Audrey' worn smooth: Audrey was the everyday form of Æthelthryth, the princess who founded Ely's abbey in 673, and her admirers bought m...

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 bread-keeper, a fossil of the Germanic custom that a chief fed his war band. Over the centuries hlāfweard wore down to hlāford a...

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) Norfolk

C) Yorkshire

D) Staffordshire

Answer · why

D) Staffordshire

The Staffordshire Hoard's 4,600 pieces hold about 5 kg of gold and 3,500 garnets, and museums in Birmingham and Stoke paid £3.285 million to keep it. ...