Major Highways of Britain: The A38, Part 1 Quiz

Answer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunell was responsible for much of the engineering work on the Great Western Railway (God's Wonderful Railway), including the Royal Albert Bridge over the River Tamar. It was opened by Prince Albert in May 1859 shortly before Brunell's untimely death.

Answer: Buckfast Tonic Wine

The monks at the Abbey started making Buckfast Tonic Wine in the 1890's. It's based on a traditional recipe from France and consists of 15% fortified wine with about 280mg of caffeine added per 750ml bottle - equivalent to about eight cans of cola per bottle.

It's available throughout the UK but seems to be particularly popular in Scotland where sadly it's associated with under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour. A Scottish Magistrate once said of it that "a diet of four bottles [of Buckfast] a day is not conducive to a long life".

Answer: Buckfast bees

Karl Kehrle, also known as Brother Adam, lived at Buckfast Abbey from 1909 to 1995. He devoted his life there to producing a disease-resistant strain of honey bee - the "Buckfast Bee" - to help rebuild the British bee population after it had been devastated by a plague of internal parasitic mites during the WWI period. This involved much travel collecting various strains of bee from all over the world, and conducting long-term experiments in using cross-breeding techniques. For his work he was awarded honorary Doctorates by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and by Exeter University, and also an OBE.

At one time the Abbey housed about 400 hives of these bees, but sadly they're no longer kept there - the Abbey's focus is now on educational work in mellitology.

Answer: He survived three attempts at hanging and then served a life sentence

John Lee (1864-1945) was sentenced to death for murdering his employer; the execution was set for 23 February 1885 at Exeter Prison. Three times he stood on the gallows trapdoor, three times the executioner pulled the lever to send him plunging to his death - and three times the trapdoor didn't open, despite it being carefully tested by the executioner beforehand. The attending medical officer then called a halt to the proceedings and eventually Lee's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

It was found that the gallows mechanism had been subtly damaged during a change of location; the trapdoor would work with nobody standing on the it but wouldn't work if there was someone on it.

Lee was eventually released in 1907, and went on to make a living lecturing about his experiences; there was even a short silent movie made about the event. After a while he disappeared from view, and he's thought to have died in Milwaukee in 1945.

I was a big fan of Fairport Convention during my youth, and it was from their 1971 album "'Babbacombe' Lee" that I found out about this incident. It's an unusual album, a bit like a folk rock opera and worth listening to.

Answer: Sedgemoor

The Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685 was the final dénouement of the rebellion mounted against the Catholic King James II by the Duke of Monmouth, the eldest illegitimate son of King Charles II and a staunch Protestant.

Having lived for some years in exile in what is now the Netherlands, in 1685 he returned to England with a small army aiming to depose King James II. After landing at Lyme Regis he marched towards Bristol. He attracted much local support, but most of his recruits were peasants armed only with pitchforks, who would be no match for the government's regular army soldiers. Four weeks after landing he attempted an ambitious night attack upon King James's army at Westonzoyland; this effort failed and his force was totally destroyed, either killed or wounded (1,300 men) or captured (2,700 men). Many were shot while hiding in ditches and others were summarily hung.

Monmouth escaped but was captured a few days later, taken to London and executed a week later. King James sought revenge for this uprising, so he commissioned Judge Jeffreys to conduct what became known as the "Bloody Assizes". Nearly 1,400 people were found guilty of treason, of which about 250 were executed. Many others were sentenced to transportation and indentured servitude in the West Indies. King James occupied the throne for only three more years before he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Note that the battle is referred to as "The Battle of Sedgemoor" even though it took place just to the north of the village of Westonzoyland - after the battle about 500 prisoners were held in its parish church. It was also arguably the last battle to be fought on English soil, although to an extent it depends on how you define "battle"!

Answer: The Mendip Hills

The Mendips are a beautiful range of hills, with their highest point being Beacon Batch at 325 metres. They're composed mainly of Carboniferous limestone, which is extensively quarried and also gives rise to deep caves, dry valleys and gorges - for example, the famous Cheddar Gorge. The Hills are also rich in archaeological sites, including Roman lead mines.

The name "Mendip" is thought to derive from a combination of the Primitive Welsh word "mönļš" (meaning "a hill") and the Old English word "yppe" (meaning a hunting place - thus "an upland area used for hunting". Certainly the Hills were used for hunting by Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings.

Looking at the three incorrect answer options, the Cheviots are a range of granite uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, the Malverns are a small group of Pre-Cambrian peaks about 680 million years old in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, and the Mournes are a range of granite hills in Northern Ireland.

Answer: "SS Great Britain"

Another example of the genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, "SS Great Britain" was in service from 1845 to 1886; in the early years of this period she was the largest and fastest passenger ship in the world, thanks to Brunel's idea of combining an iron hull with a screw propeller.

However her career was not a happy one. After barely a year in service she ran aground at Dundrum Bay in Northern Ireland, and the high cost of refloating her forced her owners out of business. In 1852 she was repaired and sold, and for the next 29 years she carried emigrants to Australia until being converted to all-sail in 1881. Three years later she was she was retired to the Falkland Islands to be used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until she was scuttled in 1937. In 1970, however, she was repaired and returned to Bristol as a visitor attraction and museum ship.

Looking at the incorrect answer options, "Rainbow" (1837) was an iron paddle-wheel steamer, "SS Archimedes" (1839) was the first steamship to be driven successfully by a screw propeller, and "PS Great Western" (1837) was the first wooden paddle steamship to regularly cross the Atlantic. All of these vessels contributed to the development of the "SS Great Britain".

Answer: Bristol Rovers and Bristol City

Bristol City, aka "The Robins", and Bristol Rovers, aka "The Pirates", are the two Football League teams in Bristol. Bristol City play in red shirts and white shorts, while Bristol Rovers play in blue-and-while quartered shirts (unusual in the Football League) with white shorts.

Playing at Ashton Gate in the south side of the city, Bristol City were formed in 1894 and have been in the Football League since 1901. They were a very successful team in the early 1900's, but have since settled down in the League's lower Divisions.

Bristol Rovers have had a slightly more chequered history. Formed in the north side of the city near the old gasworks in 1883, they joined the Football League in 1920. However they've normally been in lower Divisions than their rivals, and indeed have lost their League status on two occasions. The club also spent many years playing at borrowed stadia after the original ground at Eastville was sold in 1986.

Answer: Edward II

Edward II (1284-1327) acceded to the throne in 1307. He angered the English nobility by awarding high offices to his father's opponents and to his own favourites, in particular to his close friend (and supposed lover) Piers Gaveston. This led to the barons enacting a set of Ordinances against him, restricting his powers and banishing his favourites; Gaveston foolishly returned from exile and was murdered. The barons also blamed Edward for granting Scotland its independence after he was defeated by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. In addition, his difficult relationship with his wife, Isabella of France, resulted in her invading England from France in 1326 with her exiled lover. In 1327 Edward was imprisoned and forced to abdicate in favour of his son.

Edward was held in various prisons over the next few months but eventually ended up at Berkeley, where he was almost certainly murdered. There is little agreement among historians as to the precise manner of his death (although some accounts are fairly gruesome), and the identities of those responsible, although it has been said that his death was "suspiciously timely".

Answer: Nene or Hawaiian goose

The Nene or Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis) had been reduced to 30 surviving individuals in 1952. Scott brought a number of them to Slimbridge where they successfully bred; since then, many have been sent back to Hawai'i. Although the world population now stands at about 4,000, it is still the world's rarest goose.

Slimbridge is a wonderful place, full of birdlife. We used to holiday with relatives in the area 65 years ago, and even then I was entranced with the Nenes wandering around. About 45 years ago I was acquainted with Dafila Scott, Sir Peter's daughter, who'd carried out some interesting research on breeding systems in Berwick's swans - she estimated that she could recognise over a thousand individual swans by the marks on their bills. She's now a vey talented artist.

The incorrect answer options are all endangered birds in the Pacific region; in fact, the Guam kingfisher is extinct in the wild.