Q 01/05

Birmingham, England, claims more miles of canal than which Italian city, a legacy of its industrial past?

A) Venice

B) Milan

C) Rome

D) Florence

Answer · why

A) Venice

Venice is the comparison Brummies love: the Birmingham Canal Navigations once ran to about 160 miles, and just over 100 miles are still navigable, mos...

Q 02/05

Alfred Bird devised his Birmingham custard powder in 1837 because his wife could not eat which ingredient?

A) Cream

B) Flour

C) Eggs

D) Sugar

Answer · why

C) Eggs

Eggs thicken traditional custard, so Bird, a chemist, used cornflour instead; the egg-free version was served to dinner guests one evening and went do...

Q 03/05

George Cadbury, a Quaker, kept which business out of Bournville, his model village beside the chocolate works?

A) Pubs

B) Banks

C) Shops

D) Cinemas

Answer · why

A) Pubs

Pubs have never been built in Bournville, although a licensed members' bar has operated at Rowheath Pavilion since the late 1940s; the estate's layout...

Q 04/05

The 'ring' in Birmingham's Bull Ring was an iron hoop to which bulls were tied for what, before slaughter?

A) Branding

B) Auctioning

C) Weighing

D) Baiting

Answer · why

D) Baiting

Baiting took place on the green of the medieval Corn Cheaping market, which gave the Bull Ring its name; the 1964 Bull Ring Centre that later replaced...

Q 05/05

Duran Duran, formed in Birmingham in 1978, took their name from a villain in which 1968 science-fiction film?

A) Planet of the Apes

B) Barbarella

C) Fantastic Voyage

D) Flash Gordon

Answer · why

B) Barbarella

Barbarella's villain Dr. Durand Durand, played by Milo O'Shea, gave the band its name the day after the film aired on the BBC in October 1978; they we...