Q 01/05

Which county, containing the whole of Dartmoor, is the only one in England with two separate coastlines?

A) Cornwall

B) Devon

C) Somerset

D) Kent

Answer · why

B) Devon

Devon faces the Bristol Channel to the north and the English Channel to the south, and the two shores never join because Cornwall takes the tip of the...

Q 02/05

On which county's coast at Happisburgh were the oldest known human footprints outside Africa uncovered in 2013?

A) Kent

B) Essex

C) Norfolk

D) Lincolnshire

Answer · why

C) Norfolk

Norfolk's rough seas stripped the beach to reveal the prints, more than 800,000 years old, in May 2013 and washed them away within about two weeks, so...

Q 03/05

Which river name, shared by the waterways through Bath, Salisbury and Evesham, comes from a Brittonic word simply meaning 'river'?

A) Derwent

B) Stour

C) Trent

D) Avon

Answer · why

D) Avon

Avon comes from the Brittonic abona, 'river', the same word as the modern Welsh afon, so anyone who says 'River Avon' is really saying 'River River'.

Q 04/05

The ending shared by Manchester, Winchester and Chester derives from castra, the Latin word for what?

A) A military camp

B) A market town

C) A river crossing

D) A sacred grove

Answer · why

A) A military camp

A military camp of the legions became 'ceaster' to the Anglo-Saxons, which is why most -chester, -caster and -cester towns stand on Roman sites. Lanca...

Q 05/05

Place names ending in -by, such as Grimsby and Whitby, record villages founded by which people?

A) Roman legionaries

B) Norse settlers

C) Norman barons

D) Saxon monks

Answer · why

B) Norse settlers

Norse settlers called a village a 'by', and the ending clusters across the old Danelaw of northern and eastern England. The same word gave English 'by...