A research prepared by Dimitar Panayotov (9th grade)
- Most people refer to the clock tower next to the Houses of Parliament as Big Ben. However, that is only the name of the 13-tonne bell inside. The actual tower is known as St. Stephen’s Tower.
- The Brits invented the first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system, back in 1840. The ‘Penny Black’ had a picture of Queen Victoria on it, and as the name suggests, cost one penny. Before that time, it was usually the recipient who paid the postage price, which varied according to how far the letter had travelled.
- After the Penny Black stamp came the Penny Red. This was introduced as once a Penny Black had been used, the post service would cross the stamp out in red to show it had been used.
- Golf was invented in Scotland, and can be traced back to 1457. However, it was outlawed for a while by King James II of Scotland, as it detracted from the army’s training!
- Meanwhile, the old golf course at St Andrews Links in Fife, Scotland is the oldest golf course in the world. There’s an historic charter dating back to 1552 which mentions people can continue the “playing at golf, futball, schuting at all gamis, with all uther maner of pastyme as ever thai plais.”
- The Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch is the longest name of a town in the world. If you want a photo with the name, head to the train station where the sign stretches right down the platform!
- It’s thought that Ian Fleming used a bus route close to his home as inspiration for James Bond’s codename. The route 007 used to go from Canterbury to the Kent coast.
- Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world, being in use since the 11th century. It’s still one of the official residences of The Queen, as well as having some areas accessible to the public on tours.
- Among Queen Elizabeth II’s more bizarre titles is ‘Seigneur of the Swans’. Officially, the reigning monarch owns any unmarked mute swan in open water in both England and Wales… so most of the swans in Britain.
- Wales’ capital city Cardiff is known as the ‘City of Arcades’ as it is home to the highest concentration of Victorian, Edwardian and contemporary indoor shopping arcades of any British city.
- French was the official language of the nation for 300 years.
- Great Britain is home to the shortest scheduled passenger flight in the world. The 2.7 km flight from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands in Scotland has a scheduled time of one and a half minutes, although the record stands at 47 seconds. Tickets with Loganair start from £7.25 one way.
- The record for the world’s shortest war is held by Britain and Zanzibar. The Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896 lasted just 38 minutes.
- Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary for increasing the number of words in the English language. It’s thought that his vocabulary contained over 20,000 words, and around 3,000 of these were added to our language.
- One of Britain’s most bizarre events is the annual cheese-rolling competition that takes place on Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire. At the top of the hill a 3kg Double Gloucester cheese is sent rolling down.
- While around 660 species of spider are found in Britain, the most poisonous is the false widow spider, which it’s thought was introduced to Britain from the Canary Islands. They look pretty scary, but their bites are relatively harmless.
- The Queen is also the only person from Great Britain who doesn’t need to possess a British passport in order to travel. The royal family website states, “as a British passport is issued in the name of Her Majesty, it is unnecessary for The Queen to possess one. All other members of the Royal Family, including The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales, have passports.”
- The Tower of London has had many famous inhabitants, but arguably the most famous are the six black ravens. Charles II wrote a royal decree which said that if any of the birds flew away, then the kingdom would fall.
- Buckingham Palace might be one of the most prestigious buildings in London, but did you know it was built on the site of a gay brothel
