County Bounty Trivia Quiz

Answer: Merseyside

Cattrall is a famous Canadian actress but she moved there at three months old, having been born in Mossley Hill, Liverpool.
"Another Place" on Crosby Beach is well worth checking out if you are in the area as it quite eerily consists of 100 sculptures of Gormley's naked body embedded in the sand and looking out to sea and I also recommend the Slavery Museum, which looks at the history of slavery from the transatlantic slavery trade of the 16th century up to modern day slavery and racism.
Merseyside is also home to football giants Everton and Liverpool as well as Royal Birkdale Golf Club which hosted the Open in 2017. And how could one write about Merseyside without mentioning music? The Beatles are obviously the most famous, but it is also home to The Zutons, Echo & the Bunnymen, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and jazz legend George Melly.

Answer: Nottinghamshire

The claim of "Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem" to be the oldest pub is hotly contested by "Ye Olde Salutation Inn" and "The Bell Inn", both also in Nottingham but there is evidence that the caves on which the pub is built were used as a brewhouse for Nottingham Castle which was built in 1067. The sandstone caves on which Nottingham sits have had many other uses other than a brewhouse, such as slum dwellings, a tannery, air raid shelters and now a tourist attraction. Parts of Nottinghamshire date back to the Roman Invasion of AD 43, and there is much evidence of settlement by the Angles in the 5th century, with many place names retaining a medieval link to this period.

Answer: Suffolk

Suffolk is rightly proud of the Sutton Hoo site which caused great excitement when it was first discovered and continues to enthrall historians as still in 2018, the area continues to yield artefacts which aid our understanding of the Anglo-Saxon era. King of East Anglia, St. Edmund, who was killed in 869, gives his name to the large town of Bury St. Edmunds. The county is famous for the "Rendlesham Forest Incident", often called the UK's Roswell which occurred close to RAF Woodbridge, which was at the time a USAF base. Suffolk is also home to Newmarket, which is the HQ of UK horse racing, as well as having the UK's largest container port in Felixstowe.

Answer: Cornwall

Cornwall is famous for Cornish Teas and stunning coastlines contributing to a massive tourism industry, indeed tourism is estimated to account for over a quarter of the county's gross domestic product, and is worth almost £2 billion.
Historically, tin and copper mining were important industries but after being mentioned in 4th century BCE by Pytheas, these industries fell into decline in 1960s.
The Cornish language is undergoing a revival, due to the fact that since 2002, it has been taught in several primary schools and many road and information signs are now dual language.

Answer: Essex

Essex is in the eastern part of the former Kingdom of Essex (527-825), of which Sigered was the last king. The Kingdom of Essex became part of the Kingdom of Wessex in 825 and Essex became a county following the Norman conquest of the 11th century. In Roman times, Camulodunum, now known as Colchester, was the capital of Roman Britain and is Britain's oldest recorded town.
Essex is part of the "home counties" which surround London, the others being Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.

Answer: Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, is separated from Hampshire by the Solent strait. Historically, it was a part of Hampshire but became its own county in 1890. Osborne House, overlooking the Solent, was built as a summer retreat for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and following her death there in 1901, the house was given to the nation by King Edward VII and is now a tourist attraction run by "English Heritage" at which visitors can see Victoria's personal bathing machine on the private beach.

The 1970 Isle of Wight festival was at the time the largest rock music event ever held, prompting a law stopping overnight open-air gatherings of more than 5,000 people on the island. The festival was revived in 2002 and has seen headliners such as David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band and in 2016, The Who, who also played at the 1970 event.

Answer: Bedfordshire

The HQ of the RSPB is in the town of Sandy and the nature reserve is home to woodpeckers, songbirds and birds of prey. It always amused me when I was a kid that the postal address is RSPB, Sandy, Beds. Sandy Beds just sounded so much like a stage name for an alternative actress!
The massive Cardington sheds, after being unused for a time have found a new lease of life in the world of film and music. The "Star Wars" series of movies and the Christopher Nolan-directed "Batman" series of movies have all had scenes shot in the sheds, while U2, AC/DC and Paul McCartney have all used the sheds for rehearsals prior to tours.
Finally the famous Bedfordshire Clanger. It is a suet crust pastry, filled with meat in one end and jam in the other and then rolled up, originally made for agricultural workers to eat while working in the fields during 19th century.

Answer: Kent

Runcie and Welby have both been head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, and as such reside in the Old Palace in the city as well as having residence in Lambeth Palace, London.
Traditional buildings for drying hops, called oast houses, dot the countryside some dating back to the 17th century and many now are converted into residential buildings; the county is rich in fruit orchards and market gardens as well as being the main UK producer of hazlenuts.
Jagger and fellow Rolling Stone Keith Richards are from Dartford which was a meeting place during the peasant's revolt of 1381. The Channel Tunnel is also situated in the county, meaning that Kent is closer to France than it is to Birmingham.

Answer: Wiltshire

Although the famous Stonehenge is also in Wiltshire, the largest megalithic stone circle is at Avebury, where there are also two other stone circles, all built in 3rd century BCE. Although the original use of them remains unknown, they are considered sacred to followers of Druidism and Wicca.

The Mound, also known as Merlin's Barrow, in the grounds of Marlborough College was believed for many years to have been the wizard's resting place, giving rise to the town's motto, "Where now are the bones of wise Merlin?", but radiocarbon dating on the 19 metre mound show it was created around 2400 BCE, on the site of a prehistoric structure. New Zealand is a small village in the county, as is the amusingly named Tiddlywink.

Answer: Somerset

Taunton was the first town with permanent electric street lights, a full year before the Electric Lighting Act of 1882 came into force, the usefulness of such lights having been demonstrated at a floodlit rugby match in the town in 1879.
Nunney Castle was built in 1370 and although it is in ruins now, parts are still standing and one still has to cross the moat via drawbridge to visit it.
Somerset is the home of cider making in UK; from tiny orchards making farmhouse 'scrumpy' to large commercial operations, there is sure to be a cider for everyone as the industry continues to grow, although sadly the same can not be said for cheese making in Cheddar. Once home to countless producers, of whom many used the caves of Cheddar Gorge to mature the cheese, as of 2017, there was only one remaining in the village.