West Midlands Trivia

Coventry Trivia
Did you know?

Air raid shelters were constructed in Coventry in 1938, one year before the 2nd world war even started. Now that's what you call foresight!

Coventry City Football Club was originally known as Singers because it was founded in 1883 by employees of the Singers cycle factory.

An Iron Age settlement of roundhouses was recently discovered at Gibbet Hill whilst a sports pitch was being layed at the University of Warwick.

The 1970s TV drama series about nurses, Angels, was filmed at Walsgrave Hospital.

William Wombell, owner of Wombell's Menagerie was killed by one of his own elephants at Coventry Fair on 12 June 1849. He is buried in the London Road Cemetery.

Thomas Loseby, the man who designed the old Market Hall Clock in Coventry, agreed to be fined £1 for every minute it lost.

The tapestry in the new Coventry Cathedral is said to be the biggest in the world.

William Shakespeare put on plays at St Mary's Hall in Coventry at least six times and the same building provided the fictional base for the trial scene of Hetty Sorrel in George Elliot's Adam Bede.

A tailor called Tom is said to have been the only person to see Lady Godiva riding naked through Coventry in the 11th century. Legend says that poor Tom was immediately blinded by the wrath of God. He subsequently became known as Peeping Tom.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono visited Coventry Cathedral in 1968 to plant acorns as part of their Acorns For Peace tour (as mentioned in The Ballad of John and Yoko). The acorns were, sadly, stolen.

Lady Godiva's real name was Godgifu, meaning God's Gift. She was buried at Evesham Abbey.

1970s Ska band The Specials originated from the city and were first known as The Automatics, then The Coventry Automatics, followed by The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, which was shortened to The Special AKA and finally ended up as The Specials.

Pop svengali Pete Waterman was born in Coventry in 1947. He became best known for his collaboration in the highly successful Stock Aitken and Waterman music company of the 1980s. His various acts have had a total of 22 number one UK hits and he claims upwards of 500 million sales worldwide.

In March 1772 Mary Clues of Gosford Street in Coventry was consumed by fire in what was claimed at the time to have been a case of spontaneous human combustion.

On May 9th 1999, local fitness athlete Paddy Doyle achieved the world's fastest time to run five miles while carrying a 25.4-kg. (56-lb.) backpack. Paddy achieved the record with a time of 36 minutes 49 seconds at the Royal British Legion Runathon, Stoneleigh Park, Coventry.

Coventry City FC only became known as the Sky Blues in 1961 when they launched their new kit and also welcomed the manager who would revolutionise the club - Jimmy Hill.

Dudley Trivia
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Dudley Zoo is the only zoo in Britain with a medieval castle and mysterious underground caverns on the same site.

When a local 8th century boy prince named Kenelm was walking on the Clent Hills, he had the misfortune of being murdered by his evil guardian Askobert. On falling to the ground, a white dove fluttered straight out of Kenelm's body and flew off to the Pope in Rome. On further investigation by vatican messengers, it was found that a healing spring was flowing from the spot where Kenelm had died. Kenelm thus became the Black Country's first saint and a shrine was built to honour him on the the side of Clent.

The anchor of the Titanic was made in Nertherton by N Hingle and Sons Ltd. The anchor weighed sixteen tons, making it the largest in the world, so heavy that it had to be taken to the vessel by train in 1911.

The uncle of Miles Hunt, vocalist and guitarist with Stourbridge band The Wonder Stuff, was Bill Hunt the drummer with Roy Wood's Wizzard.

The Crooked House pub at Coppice Mill, Himley is one of the weirdest pubs in Britain. Originally built as a farmhouse in 1765, during the 19th century the whole building began to slope due to subsidence caused by coal mines deep under ground. The pub is now four foot lower on one side than the other and is heavily supported by butteresses and girders. The pub is now well know for the unusual optical illusions experienced by it's customers, with glasses appearing to slide up tables and curtains hanging at odd angles from window frames. This is one pub where a few pints of beer actually help the customers to feel more level headed.

If Dorset has the legend of the Cerne Abbas Giant and Staffordshire the witches of Leek, the Black Country has it's very own local legends in the tales of Enoch and Eli (or Aynuch and Ayli). A typical Aynoch and Ayli story goes thus: Aynuk: 'Ow do yow know when yow should use a screw Or a nail? Ayli: yow 'ommer a nail into a piece o' wood, and if it splits, yow should've used a screw! ...

The Stourbridge Lion was an early locomotive built in Stourbridge in 1829 which was made famous when it became the first steam locomotive to run on a commercial line in the United States. Designed by the brilliant engineer John Urpeth Rastrick and built by his company, Foster, Rastrick & Co., the Stourbridge Lion's historic first run took place on August 8th 1829. It is now on view at the B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore MD, on loan from The Smithsoniam Institute, Washington DC.

Herefordshire Trivia
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One of the bloodiest battles ever enacted on English soil took place at Mortimer's Cross near Leominster on 3 February 1461. The battle was a decisive episode in the War of the Roses with the Yorkists defeating the Lancastrians. Hundreds died and a month after the battle Edward Mortimer, the Duke of York's eldest son was crowned King Edward IV.

Cider has been made in Herefordshire since before Roman times and for many local families it was drunk as a safer alternative to water. There are even reports that Herefordshire babies were once baptised in cider. One old saying goes that it takes four men to drink a pint of Herefordshire cider - two to hold a man down and the fourth to pour it down his throat!

Herefordshire is not only known for it's distinctive beef cattle but also for the world famous Ryelands Sheep which originated from the valley around the River Lugg near Leominster. The Ryelands sheep produces exceptionally fine wool and the breed helped to establish the huge flocks of Australia.

The Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral is a map of the world drawn by 13th century monks. The map features Jerusalem at the centre of the world and also depicts Hereford itself with a picture of a cathedral. Maps such as the Mappa Mundi were never meant to be geographically accurate for navigational purposes, but were designed as minor encyclopedias of Medieval knowledge.

Offa's Dyke is a man-made linear earthwork which follows the English / Welsh border for about 80 miles from the Wye valley in Herefordshire to Wrexham. The original Dyke was 27 metres wide and 8 metres high and parts of it are still impressive, 1200 years after it was constructed by Offa, the king of Mercia in about 785 AD. The Dyke was built to protect the fertile valleys of Mercia from attack by the Welsh.

At the end of the Second World War, Rudolph Hess, the former deputy to Adolf Hitler was flown from Madley RAF station near Hereford to be put on trial in Nuremberg for war crimes.

Sandwell Trivia
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In 1832, the Black Country was hit by Asiatic cholera. Many people believed that the Black Country would be protected from the approaching cholera epidemic because of the ring of black smoke which encircled the area, but it first appeared at Rowley Regis in July 1832 and then spread rapidly. 750 people died of cholera in Bilston and 404 in Tipton.

Fans at the Hawthorns in the fifties enjoyed an 11-goal European bonanza on October 29, 1957 when Albion beat CSKA Moscow 6-5 in front of 52,805 spectators. The list of goalscorers is something of a footballing who’s who: Derek Kevan (2), Ronnie Allen (penalty), Bobby Robson, Frank Griffin and Don Howe.

During an annual ceremony in Wednesbury known as Beating the Bounds, the local beadle would lead a procession of parish officials to the outer edges of the parish, where they would then throw two boys into the stream at Tame Bridge as a sacrifice to the ancient river God. The ceremony went on into the 18th century.

The oldest steam engine in working order in the world is the Smethwick Engine dating from 1779. Designed by James Watt, the engine was built by the Birmingham Canal Company at a cost of £ 2000 to pump water back up a flight of locks on the canal at Smethwick. The engine remained in situ until 1891 and was later presented to Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry. It now resides in the ThinkTank museum in Birmingham.

Local historians from the Black Country claim that the man who wrote the song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" actually composed this much loved tune of World War One not at Stalybridge in Cheshire, as is commonly claimed, but in an Oldbury pub in Birmingham Street. Whilst all are agreed that the song was composed by Jack Judge, a website correspondant (http://www.thestirrer.co.uk/) named John Mellor believes that a statue unveiled in Judge's honour in Stalybridge should actually be in Oldbury. As a former police superintendent in Oldbury, John Mellor was 'constantly regaled with stories of Jack Judge' who was an Oldbury man with a stall in Oldbury market.

Shropshire Trivia
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The original Old English name for Shropshire was "Scrobbesbyrigscīr" (literally Shrewsburyshire). However, the Normans who ruled England after 1066 found both "Scrobbesbyrig" and "Scrobbesbyrigscir" difficult to pronounce so they softened them to "Salopesberia" and "Salopescira". These became abbreviated to Salop which was widely used from about 1888. In 1980 however, the county council renamed itself Shropshire.

Shropshire holds the record for the coldest temperature recorded in England and Wales. In the early hours of January 10 1982, a temperature of -26.1 C was recorded at Edgmond.

Shrewsbury has the tallest town crier in the world, at 7ft 2in, and now also the tallest MP in the United Kingdom - Daniel Kawczynski is 6ft 8.5in tall.

The ceremonial county of Shropshire is the United Kingdom's largest inland (surrounded entirely by land) county.

There are 701 public houses in Shropshire.

Telford has more Japanese maunfacturing companies than any other area of Britain.

The 1985 television programme Blott on the Landscape was filmed mainly in South Shropshire, notably in Ludlow.

The village of Llanyblodwell may sound as if it is in Wales but actually it lies on this side of the border in Shropshire. The village is well known for an unusual cigar-shaped church tower, connected to the church by an arch, which was the construction of an eccentric 19th century vicar named Reverand Parker. An inscription on the arch reads: "From thunder and lightning, earthquake and flood, good Lord deliver us". Incidentally the English translation of Llanyblodwell is 'village of flowers'.

Solihull Trivia
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The Romans used Meriden, now part of modern Solihull as a resting place for soldiers and merchants travelling between the settlements of Metchley (now in South Birmingham) and Bagington (Coventry).

Meriden is claimed to be at the centre of England and also has the oldest archery society in the country. The society members claim that a horn that has hung in the entrance of their meeting hall for centuries, was put there by Robin Hood.

Famous residents of Solihull have included Jasper Carrott and his daughter Lucy Davis from The Office, Felicity Kendall (born in Olton in 1946) and Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce. Mandy Rice-Davies, famed for her role in the Profumo Affair, came from Shirley and attended Sharman's Cross school in Solihull.

Solihull has developed in what used to be the ancient Forest of Arden. The Anglo-Saxons hunted across the area and used hills like Elmdon to view their hunting grounds.

Former pupils of Solihull School have included Simon Mayo (Radio 5 DJ), John Curry (figure skater), Phil Oakey (musician), Michael Buerk (broadcaster) and Bert Millichip (former head of the FA).

Temple Balsall in Solihull takes it's name from a military-religious order called the Knights Templar, founded to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land in the 12th century. The order was dissolved in 1312 but was succeded by the Knights Hospitallers, named after the hospital of St John the Baptist at Jerusalem. This order was itself dissolved in 1540 but it's work is continued today in the form of the St John Ambulance Brigade.

The George Hotel in Solihull town centre has the oldest bowls green in the country, it has been in use since the 14th century.

Staffordshire Trivia
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The north Staffordshire village of Endon near Leek is the only place in the county which still continues the ancient custom of well-dressing. The custom is still very common in neighbouring Derbyshire and is based on an ancient pagan ritual. The Endon well-dressing ceremony takes place every Spring Bank Holiday and is accompanied by the ritual competition of "Tossing the Sheaf".

Mr and Mrs Kippling named their son Rudyard after the place were they first met in 1863. Rudyard is a tiny Staffordshire village next to the two mile long Rudyard Lake. In 1877 more than 20,000 people came to Rudyard Lake to see Captain Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, taking a dip in it's waters.

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier was first bred when bull-fighting was banned in Britain to be superseded by dog-fighting in the 19th century. Bulldogs were crossed with terriers to produce a more agile fighting dog. Because of it's ruffian reputation, the breed was not recognised by the Kennel Club until 1935. Staffordshires were not allowed to compete in American dog shows until 1975.

Amongst the founders of the world famous brewing industry of Burton were the monks of the Benedictine Abbey founded there in 1100. The monks built their Abbey on the banks of the River Trent, although it was actually local well water that they used for brewing beer.

Port Vale football club may not have had many world famous players in their long history, but they have got a world famous supporter. Pop superstar Robbie Williams was born in Stoke-on-Trent and has been a Port Vale fan all of his life. In 2006 he reportedly invested £240,000 in the struggling north Staffordshire side.

Famous residents of the south Staffs cathedral city, Lichfield, once included poet and author Samuel Johnson, landscaper Anna Seward, actor-manager David Garrick, philosopher and botanist Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) and last but not least, St Chad.

In days gone by, before the advent of the motor engine, tradesmen and merchants were reliant on the horse and cart to transport their goods and produce from town to town. The design of carts and wagons varied from region to region according to the terrain and to the loads they carried. The Staffordshire wagon was especially celebrated for it's robust design, with thick wheel rims of up to 8 inches wide and a sturdy frame that could carry heavy loads. It was not unusual for a Staffordshire wagon to be pulled by up to six horses.

The caves at Kinver were carved into the soft sandstone near Holy Austin Rock by local homeless people over several centuries. In the face of Kinver Edge itself, a tunnelled rock cottage known as Nanny's Rock or Meg-a-Fox Hole was reputedly the hideout ofa highway man. This cave even has a flue running up through the cliff.

Walsall Trivia
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Walsall born author Jerome K Jerome based the three characters in his famous novel Three Men in a Boat on himself and two friends, George Wingrave and Carl Hentschel. JKJ once admitted that only the dog character, Montmorency never existed in reality and added 'Montmorency I evolved out of my inner consciousness. Though dog friends that I came to know later have told me it was true to life'.

In November 1999 Tom Holmes of Walsall entered the Guinness Book of Records for having the world's largest necktie collection. Tom collected 11,650 different ties over 70 years, including yearly birthday ties sent by the British Prime Minister.

Sister Dora (Dorothy Pattison) came to Walsall from Yorkshire in the mid 1800s and became one of the town's most loved citizens because of the work she did caring for the sick and the poor. This 19th century Mother Theresa character died on Christmas Eve 1878 and in 1886 a statue was unveiled on The Bridge in Walsall, making her the first female in this country, apart from members of the royal family to be honoured with a statue. More recently though, a Midland Metro tram has also been named in her honour!

The original Walsall Football Club was an amalgamation of two rival teams, Walsall Town (founded 1877) and Walsall Swifts (founded 1879). When the two teams came together in the middle of the 1887/88 season it was just in time for the final of the Birmingham Charity Cup against Aston Villa. The game was played at Villa's ground in Perry Barr and ended in a draw. Walsall then argued for the replay to be held on their own pitch at the Chuckery Ground but were refused. With the match destined to be played either back at Perry Barr or in Small Heath, Walsall withdrew from the final in disgust.

Steve Jenkins, the Managing Director of the mutli million pounds pop music company Jive Records whose artists have included Britney Speers, Justin Timberlake and Steps started life from humble beginnings in Walsall. Steve's dad was a drummer in a band called the Rythm Rascals and Steve himself used to run the PA at Fellows Park where he'd spin records before Walsall matches and at half time.

Walsall's leather trade reached it's peak in the late 19th century when there were some 3.3 million working horses in late Victorian England which required saddles and other horse related items. At the turn of the 20th century, a third of Britain's saddlers and harness makers were in Walsall but with the decline of the horse and the rise of the motorcar many turned their skills to making leather motoring goggles, travel cases, wallets and hat boxes.

The Garman Ryan Collection at Walsall's New Art Gallery is one of the most distinguished collections of art in the world. The collection of 365 works was donated to Walsall in 1972 by Lady Kathleen Epstein (nee. Garman), the wife of the famous artist Jacob Epstein and her friend Sally Ryan, a sculptor. The collection includes works by Cezanne, Constable, Degas, Gainsborough, Gauguin, Manet, Millet, Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rodin, Turner, Van Gogh and Whistler. Not bad for a town whose most notorious piece of street sculpture is a much-maligned concrete hippopotamus.

Did you know that Noddy Holder (Slade) grew up on Walsall's Beechdale Estate whilst Boy George (Culture Club) lived on the same estate as a youth?

Warwickshire Trivia
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William Shakespeare married a woman nearly twice his age. Anne Hathaway was 26 years old when William married her at age 18. They married at Temple Grafton, a village approximately five miles (8 km) from Stratford. Anne Hathaway was said to be from Shottery.

An earthern rampart was first built in Warwick by Ethelfleda, the daughter of King Alfred the Great to protect locals from Danish invaders. About 100 hundred years later, in 1086, William the Conquerer added the motte and bailey fort which would later become Warwick Castle.

Author George Eliot was actually a woman named Mary Ann Evans. Mary was born near Nuneaton in 1819 and used a male pseudonym as female writers were not taken seriously in the Victorian era.

In 1386 a pig accused of killing a child was paraded in men’s clothes before being publicly executed at Warwick Castle.

The game of rugby originated at Rugby school in East Warwickshire when in 1832 a pupil named William Webb Ellis broke the rules during a game of football (soccer) by picking up the ball and running with it.

Kenilworth Castle was one of only five licensed tournament grounds in England where knights would meet for grisly jousting tournaments.

Author PG Wodehouse named his fictional character Percy Jeeves after a Warwickshire cricketer of the early 20th century. Sadly, the real Percy Jeeves was killed at the Somme during the Great War.

The belief in witchcraft was common in some Warwickshire villages right up until the late 19th century. In one village the locals used to say "there are enough witches in Long Compton to draw a wagonload of hay up Long Compton Hill". On one occasion a man accused of killing a local woman in Long Compton claimed she was a witch and added that there were 16 others in the district. Just to the south of Long Compton there is a circle of Neolithic stones known as the Rollright stones. Local tradition says that the largest stone was a king who was petrified by a witch and the circle of smaller stones around him were his courtiers or knights.

Wolverhampton Trivia
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Wolverhampton glam rock group Slade were originally called The 'N Betweens but were given the new name Ambrose Slade after a character in a cowboy movie that their record company boss noticed that the Black Country lads were watching on TV. The name 'Nicky Nacky Noo' was apparently also momentarily considered.

The first traffic lights ever to be installed on British streets were put up in Princes Square, Wolverhampton in 1927.

When young Billy Wright made his debut for the Wolverhampton Wanderers 'B' team at the age of just 14 in 1938, the Wolves manager Major Frank Buckley told him he'd never make it in football. During the 1950s Billy became one of the greatest players in England, gaining 105 caps playing for the national team, a record that stood for 20 years until it was surpassed by Bobby Charlton in 1970. Billy Wright made 541 appearances for Wolves and when he died in 1994 his funeral brought the centre of Wolverhampton to a complete standstill. What say you now Major Buckley?

Wolves were the first British team to play in the Soviet Union. They were also the first league football team to be awarded a penalty whilst playing Accrington Stanley 14th Sepetmber 1891. Joseph Heath took it in front of the Molineux crowd and.... scored!!!

Tessa Sanderson was born in Jamaica in 1956 but grew up in Wolverhampton. When Tessa won a gold medal in the javelin event in the 1984 Olympics, it made her the first British black woman to win an Olympic gold.

Enoch Powell's first ever seat as an MP was in Wolverhampton in 1950. But Enoch never got close to the record of another Wolverhampton MP Sir Charles Pelham Villiers for longevity in the House. After 63 years service to his constituency, Sir Charles holds the record for being the longest serving MP in Parliamentary history.

In 1918 Wolverhampton experienced a shortage of coffins due to a very serious outbreak of influenza.

Worcestershire Trivia
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The Malvern Hills are some of the oldest in the world (650 million years old). The name Malvern is derived from the Celtic term for ‘bare hill’. It is claimed that you can see 15 counties from the highest summit of the hills at Worcestershire Beacon and the beauty of the hills inspired Sir Edward Elgar to compose ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ (Land of Hope and Glory).

Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was born in Redditch on May 31, 1948. Zeppelin's lead singer Robert Plant was born in nearby West Bromwich in the Black Country but the two went to school together and played in the local blues band Crawling King Snakes, before forming Led Zeppelin with John Paul Jones and ex-Yardbirds' guitarist Jimmy Page. Plant and Bonham always stayed close to their North Worcesershire/Black Country roots. Bonham died in September 1980.

Royal Worcester is Britain's oldest continuous producer of poreclain. The factory was founded in 1751 by Dr John Wall.

In 1894 a Guild for Applied Arts was set up in the town of Bromsgrove and the group became renowned for their decorative ironwork. One of their most famous pieces are the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Worcester Cathedral has many royal connections. King John is buried under the choir stalls and during the Civil War, King Charles II used the Cathedral tower to survey the battle of Worcester.

Legend has it that the original recipe for Worcester Sauce was brought back from India by Sir Charles Grey whose niece passed it on to one Lady Sandys of Ombersley Court in Worcerstershire. Lady Sandys was so excited by the recipe that she commissioned two Worcester based chemists, Messrs. Lea and Perrin to make a barrel of powder from the recipe. Apparantly the barrel of powder was considered indebile and was left in a basement of Lea & Perrin's premises before being rediscovered and made into a sauce in 1838.

The stretch of railway known as the Lickey Incline near Burcot is, at 1 in 37.7, the steepest gradient on the whole of the British rail network. Up until the late 1950s a specially powerful locomotive, no. 58100, known as Big Bertha would help trains up the bank.

The Kidderminster carpet company Brintons uses the wool of 1 in every 8 sheep in Britain.

The Worcestershire village of Inkberrow was the original model for the fictional village of Ambridge on BBC Radio 4's long running serial The Archers. The village pub in the radio series was based on a local timber-framed building in Inkberrow known as The Old Bull. It is said that the pub has a much older and more distinguished literary association: William Shakespeare stayed there in 1582 on his way from Stratford to Worcester to collect his marriage certificate.