Q 01/05

Which county's orchards and hop gardens earned it the nickname the Garden of England?

A) Kent

B) Devon

C) Essex

D) Surrey

Answer · why

A) Kent

Kent meets the English Channel at the White Cliffs of Dover, where the chalk ridge of the North Downs reaches the sea.

Q 02/05

Which historic county, the largest in the United Kingdom, was divided for centuries into three ridings?

A) Devon

B) Lancashire

C) Yorkshire

D) Norfolk

Answer · why

C) Yorkshire

Yorkshire's ridings took their name from an Old Norse word meaning a third part, which is why there were exactly three: North, East and West.

Q 03/05

Which law officer's title is a contraction of 'shire reeve', the king's agent in an Anglo-Saxon county?

A) Bailiff

B) Sheriff

C) Constable

D) Coroner

Answer · why

B) Sheriff

Sheriff lives on in the high sheriff, an unpaid ceremonial officer still appointed each year for every county.

Q 04/05

Which English county shares a land border with only one other county and flies St Piran's black-and-white flag?

A) Norfolk

B) Northumberland

C) Cumbria

D) Cornwall

Answer · why

D) Cornwall

Cornwall's flag honours St Piran, its patron saint, and the white cross on black is said to recall white tin against black ore.

Q 05/05

Which landlocked county, the smallest of England's historic counties, takes a horseshoe as its emblem?

A) Middlesex

B) Berkshire

C) Rutland

D) Bedfordshire

Answer · why

C) Rutland

Rutland keeps a curious custom: royalty and peers passing through Oakham must present a horseshoe to the Lord of the Manor, and more than 200 now hang...