I Never Knew That About the English

by Desconhecido

  Hilaire Belloc

  The origins of the English pub go back to the Roman ‘tavernae vinariae’, where food and wine were served around a communal table. Later there were hospices, established by monasteries, where pilgrims and travellers could find food and accommodation.

  Roman ‘tavernae’ were identified by hanging vine leaves outside. In Britain, vines were rare and a bush was substituted, hence The Bush, which is the oldest pub sign. Once the Normans arrived in England, most pubs began to hang signs outside for those who couldn’t read, which was the majority. Simple symbols were used such as The Sun, The Star, The Plough, The White Horse or The Bull.

  In 1393 Richard II made it compulsory for pubs to have a sign, so that they could be identified by his official ale tasters, and many establishments adopted Richard’s emblem, which was a White Hart. Religious signs were popular, particularly as many pubs were owned by monasteries. Hence The Cross Keys (of St Peter), The Mitre, The Monk’s Retreat and The Bishop’s Arms. After the Reformation pubs began to give themselves royal titles – The King’s Head, The Crown, or The Rose and Crown – and even the names of the monarchs themselves such as the King George or the Queen Victoria.

  Then there are the names of historic figures such as The Duke of Wellington, The Lord Nelson or The Churchill Arms, and industrial descriptions – The Railway Inn, The Bricklayer’s Arms or The Mason’s Arms.

  The most popular pub name in England is the Red Lion, which comes from James I (James VI of Scotland) who ordered that the heraldic red lion of Scotland be displayed outside important buildings in England, especially pubs.

  The story of Charles II hiding in the oak tree is behind the name Royal Oak.

  No other country depicts its history and its heroes in such an imaginative and colourful way, and the English pub sign remains a unique and irreplaceable feature of the English heritage.

  Well, I never knew this

  about

  WORCESTERSHIRE FOLK

  Sir Rowland Hill

  1795–1879

  ROWLAND HILL, inventor of the postal system that changed the world, was a Worcestershire boy, born in Blackwell Street, KIDDERMINSTER, in 1795. His family was not well off, and Hill never forgot the feeling of dread at the sound of the postman’s knock, for in those days payment was demanded from the receiver rather than the sender, and often the recipient would be too poor to redeem the letter. The cost also varied according to the distance the letter was carried and the number of sheets of paper, and this all resulted in a postal system that was hopelessly inefficient and accessible only to the rich. Hill, an educator and inventor, tried for many years to devise a system whereby the postage could be prepaid by the sender, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Finally, in 1837, a Scotsman by the name of James Chalmers submitted an invention to Parliament which would provide Hill with the means to introduce reform – the adhesive postage stamp.

  Hill’s vision was for a uniform rate of one penny for a half-ounce letter to anywhere in the British Isles, and on 1 May 1840 THE WORLD’S FIRST OFFICIAL ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP, THE PENNY BLACK, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Because the original stamps were only issued in Britain at the time, there was no need to show the country of origin and the Penny Black showed just a portrait of Queen Victoria. British stamps are still the only stamps in the world not to show the country of origin.

  Sir Rowland Hill was MP for his home town of Kidderminster, and in the town centre there is a statue of him by Worcester-born sculptor Sir Thomas Brock, who made the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace in London.

  KING JOHN (1166–1216), the king who signed the Magna Carta, is buried in WORCESTER CATHEDRAL beneath ENGLAND’S OLDEST ROYAL EFFIGY. Also buried in the cathedral is Henry VII’s eldest son PRINCE ARTHUR (1486–1502), who died at Ludlow Castle, shortly after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

  A.E. HOUSMAN (1859–1936), classical scholar and poet, was born at Valley House in FOCKBURY, near Bromsgrove. His most famous work, A Shropshire Lad, was an idealised evocation of rural English life, inspired by the view from his Worcestershire home of ‘those blue remembered hills’ in Shropshire.

  WILLIAM RICHARD MORRIS, 1ST VISCOUNT NUFFIELD (1877–1963), creator of Morris Motors, was born in WORCESTER. His Morris Minor was the first English car to sell a million, and his Mini Minor became an English icon.

  NIGEL MANSELL OBE, Formula One World Champion in 1992, was born in UPTON UPON SEVERN.

  Yorkshire

  HOUSE OF YORK ∗ NORTHERN CAPITAL

  ∗ LARGEST GOTHIC CATHEDRAL ∗ FIRST SEASIDE RESORT ∗ ENGLISH TAKEAWAY ∗ FIRST TOURIST ATTRACTION ∗ CRADLE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH

  ∗ OLDEST ENGLISH CLASSIC ∗ PUDDING ∗ TERRIERS

  The Shambles, a perfect medieval street.

  YORKSHIRE FOLK

  William Bradley ∗ Thomas Chippendale ∗ Guy Fawkes ∗ Joseph Rowntree ∗ Frankie Howerd ∗ John Barry ∗ Dame Judi Denchd Lord Leighton ∗ Charles Laughton ∗ Sir Ben Kingsley

  The House of York

  THE HOUSE OF YORK is one of the great royal dynasties that have shaped English history. It descends from Edmund of Langley, fourth son of Edward III, who was the first Duke of York, and gave us Edward IV, Edward V (one of the Princes in the Tower) and Richard III, the last English king to die in battle. The emblem of the House of York was a white rose, still the emblem of Yorkshire today. Edmund of Langley’s older brother was John of Gaunt, the first Duke of Lancaster, whose emblem was a red rose.

  York

  YORK today is one of the oldest and loveliest of English cities, nestling in THE LARGEST ENGLISH VALE, and the crowning glory of THE LARGEST ENGLISH COUNTY. There are wonderful walks along the ancient walls, which almost completely encircle the old city and are pierced by battlemented gates, including THE LAST CITY GATE IN ENGLAND TO RETAIN ITS BARBICAN, the Walmgate. The narrow, overhung Shambles is the most perfect example of a medieval town street, and the Minster one of the world’s great medieval treasures.

  York (Eboracum) was one of the two capitals of Roman Britain. The Emperor Septimus Severus ruled the entire Roman Empire from York for two years before he died there in AD 211. In 306 the Emperor Constantius Chlorus died in York and his son Constantine was proclaimed Emperor there.

  York served as the capital of the Saxon province of Northumbria under King Edwin. In 627 he was baptised in the first York Minster, made of wood, by the first Archbishop of York, Paulinus, who was a member of Saint Augustine’s mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons. York was then considered the ecclesiastical capital of the north, and the Archbishop of York is one of the two Primates of All England, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 2005 JOHN SENTAMU was enthroned as Archbishop of York – ENGLAND’S FIRST BLACK ARCHBISHOP.

  In the 9th century York became the centre of the Viking Kingdom of York and was known as Jorvik. Jorvik was the last major town to be freed from Viking rule before England became united under the Anglo-Saxons in 965.

  York Minster, begun in 1220, is THE LARGEST MEDIEVAL GOTHIC CATHEDRAL IN NORTHERN EUROPE and boasts ENGLAND’S WIDEST GOTHIC NAVE. THE GREAT EAST WINDOW, which dates from 1408, possesses THE LARGEST EXPANSE OF MEDIEVAL STAINED GLASS IN THE WORLD. It is possible to see in York Minster examples of all the stages of English Gothic architecture from Early English, through Decorated, to Perpendicular. The Gothic style began around 1180 and was originally imported from France, but became blended with the native English Romanesque or Norman style to create the Early English style.

  Scarborough

  Down to the English Seaside

  SCARBOROUGH was THE FIRST ENGLISH SEASIDE RESORT. In 1626 a spring was discovered on the edge of the beach to the south of Scarborough, and a book written in 1660 by Dr Wittie, about the medical benefits of the spa waters, attracted people with ailments from all over Yorkshire and beyond. BATHING MACHINES, THE FIRST IN ENGLAND, were introduced in 1735, and in 1845 visitors to the resort were welcomed into one of England’s
first purpose-built hotels, THE CROWN, overlooking the south bay.

  In 1867 Scarborough’s most distinctive landmark, the massive GRAND HOTEL, opened for business. It originally had 365 bedrooms, one for each day of the year, 52 chimneys, one for each week, 12 floors, one for each month, and four towers representing the four seasons. In 1914 the hotel was badly damaged and the top two floors were demolished, after Scarborough became THE FIRST TOWN IN ENGLAND TO COME UNDER GERMAN FIRE, bombarded from offshore by four cruisers of the German High Fleet.

  A blue plaque outside the Grand Hotel marks the site of Wood’s Lodgings, where the novelist ANNE BRONTë died in 1849. Racked with consumption, she came to Scarborough in the hope that the fresh sea air might help her recovery, but she was already too weak. She is buried in St Mary’s churchyard, beneath the walls of Scarborough Castle.

  For 500 years from 1253 until the middle of the 18th century, Scarborough held one of the largest trading fairs in Europe, attended by merchants from all over the Continent, and commemorated in song by Simon and Garfunkel.

  Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

  Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme . . .

  Guiseley

  THE BIGGEST FISH AND CHIP SHOP IN THE WORLD is HARRY RAMSDEN’S in GUISELEY, near Leeds.

  ENGLAND’S FIRST FISH AND CHIP SHOP was opened in London’s East End in 1860 by a Jewish immigrant called JOSEPH MALIN, fried fish being a Jewish custom imported into England with the return of the Jews in the 17th century. Thomas Jefferson records having eaten ‘fried fish in the Jewish fashion’ on a visit to London in 1786.

  Chips were invented in the 18th century by a Belgian housewife who, unable to get any fresh fish, cut a potato into fish-shaped portions and fried them, to satisfy her family. They were introduced into America by Thomas Jefferson as ‘potatoes fried in the French manner’, which is why they are known as ‘French fries’.

  Joseph Malin was the first person known to have brought the two dishes together, and the inexpensive but nourishing combination was exported north, where it was an immediate success. In 1863 JOHN LEES began selling fish and chips from a wooden hut in Mossley, in Lancashire, under a sign saying ‘This is the first fish and chip shop in the world’.

  The favourite fish in the north is haddock or hake, while in the south it is cod, and while oil is used for cooking in the south, beef dripping is preferred in the north.

  The traditional way of eating fish and chips from a newspaper was discouraged in the 1980s, when food hygienists began to worry about the food absorbing toxic newsprint.

  The Petrifying Well

  Near the River Nidd, just outside Knaresborough, is THE PETRIFYING OR DROPPING WELL, ENGLAND’S OLDEST TOURIST ATTRACTION, which opened its gates in 1630. Fed by a spring that has never been known to dry up, a silver curtain of water flows over an overhanging rock face into a huge rock bowl whose sides resemble a giant’s face. The water is laced with minerals, and any object that is placed in the rock pool becomes covered in mineral deposits, which slowly harden, making it look as though the object has been turned to stone. The Well is located in an old royal forest that was sold by Charles I in 1630 to Sir Charles Slingsby, who fenced it off and charged visitors to look at it – the first time anyone in England had thought of doing such a thing.

  Whitby

  WHITBY is a glorious ancient seaport, where English poetry first flowered and the English Church was fashioned.

  Cottages laced with narrow alleyways are piled high on the steep banks of the River Esk and tumble down the valley towards the harbour, where fishing boats bob and seagulls squabble. High atop the southern cliffs, and reached by a staircase of 199 steps, are the spectacular 13th-century ruins of WHITBY ABBEY, founded in 657 by St Hilda. It was here, in 664, that the Northumbrian King Oswy held the first Synod, bringing together Christians from the south, who followed the Roman traditions of St Augustine, and Celtic Christians from the north and west, who believed in a more monastic form of Christianity. Their purpose was to decide which Christian discipline should prevail. King Oswy, pragmatically, chose in favour of the Roman Church, whose leader Wilfred of York claimed his authority came from St Peter, holder of the keys to heaven. As Oswy declared, ‘Then I will obey St Peter, lest when I come to the Gates of Heaven there be none to open to me.’ This established the supremacy of the Roman Church in England, which lasted for nearly a thousand years until the English Reformation. Another far-reaching issue settled there was the date of Easter – we celebrate Easter when we do because of a decision made 1,300 years ago by those Saxon bishops at Whitby.

  Also in those momentous days CAEDMON, an uneducated cowherd at the abbey who tended his cattle on the cliff-top pastures, had a dream in which an angel commanded him to write a song about the glory of Creation. His ‘SONG OF CREATION’ was THE FIRST ENGLISH POEM, and Caedmon THE FIRST ENGLISH POET. His vision of Creation influenced Milton’s Paradise Lost and still resonates today in the bitter, on-going argument between Creationists and Evolutionists. On the cliffs is a monument, in the form of a tall stone cross, commemorating Caedmon, which was unveiled in 1898 by the Poet Laureate Alfred Austin. Carved on the base of the column are the first lines of poetry in the English language:

  Now must we praise the Guardian of Heaven’s realm.

  The Creator’s might and his mind’s thought.

  St Leger

  The West Riding town of DONCASTER is the home of THE WORLD’S OLDEST CLASSIC HORSE RACE, THE ST LEGER, first run on 24 September 1776. The race is named after its founder, Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony St Leger, who established a two-mile race for three-year-olds on Doncaster’s Cantley Common. In 1779 it moved to its present home Turf Moor. The St Leger is the longest of the English Classics and has only been cancelled once in its history, in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War.

  The English Classics are flat races (without jumps), restricted to three-year-olds and each run once a year. The five classics are:

  The Two Thousand Guineas (Newmarket in April/May)

  The One Thousand Guineas (Newmarket in early May)

  The Oaks (Epsom in June)

  The Derby (Epsom in June)

  The St Leger (Doncaster in September)

  Yorkshire Pudding

  The most iconic English dish, apart perhaps from fish and chips, is roast beef and YORKSHIRE PUDDING. Yorkshire pudding was invented in Yorkshire as a means of filling out the meal when there was not enough meat to go around. A batter made from flour, eggs and milk is placed underneath the meat as it is cooking, so that the fat and meat juices drip on to it. The pudding was sometimes given to children in place of meat, and today is often served on its own, filled with onion gravy.

  Yorkshire Terriers

  Two kinds of English terriers hail from Yorkshire. THE AIREDALE, largest of the English terriers, is named after the Yorkshire valley where it was first bred, from an otter hound and a breed of terrier now extinct. At the other end of the scale is the smallest English terrier, the miniscule YORKSHIRE TERRIER or Yorkie, a toy dog bred as a fashionable pet in the 19th century, from a mix of Scottish terriers.

  Well, I never knew this

  about

  YORKSHIRE FOLK

  William Bradley – The Yorkshire Giant

  1787–1820

  It seems fitting that THE TALLEST ENGLISHMAN was born in England’s largest county. WILLIAM BRADLEY was born in MARKET WEIGHTON, in Yorkshire’s East Riding. He weighed 14 pounds (6.35 kg) at birth, and reached his full height of 7 ft 9 ins (2.36 m) by the age of 20, by then weighing in at 27 stone (171 kg). While the other 11 members of his family were all of normal height, his father was just 5 ft 9 ins (1.75 m) tall. For some years William Bradley made appearances at fairs all over England, calling himself The Yorkshire Giant and charging people a shilling for a handshake. When he granted an audience to George III, the King gave Bradley a gold watch on a chain, which he wore for the rest of his life.

  Bradley died in Market Weighton aged just 33, and was buried at Al
l Saints Church – inside to deter grave-robbers. His house on Market Hill is now a shop. Since 1996, in May every year, Market Weighton has celebrated Giant Bradley Day, with market stalls, entertainers and exhibitions.

  THOMAS CHIPPENDALE (1718–79), English furniture maker, was born in OTLEY, south of Leeds. The two best collections of his furniture anywhere in England can be found in two Yorkshire homes, Harewood House, the home of the Lascelles, north of Leeds, and Nostell Priory, the home of the Winns, near Wakefield. Both houses can be visited.

  Born in York

  GUY FAWKES (1570–1606), Catholic revolutionary, the foiling of whose plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5 November 1605 is commemorated on Bonfire Night.

  JOSEPH ROWNTREE (1836–1925), Quaker philanthropist who developed his father’s chocolate factory in York into the biggest in England. Rowntree’s merged with Mackintosh’s of Halifax in 1969 and was in time taken over by Nestlé in 1988. In 1976 Rowntree brought out the Yorkie Bar, a chunky chocolate bar aimed at men. An ad campaign in the 1970s – ‘The Yorkie. Not for Girls’ – saw the Yorkie Bar banned from several railway stations for being sexist. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is today a leading organisation for research into social problems in England.

  FRANKIE HOWERD (1917–92), classic English comedian, the Queen Mother’s favourite, whose catchphrases included ‘Titter ye not’ and ‘Oh no, missus, noooo’.

  JOHN BARRY, film score composer, born 1933. Wrote the music for the earlier James Bond films, the most successful English film franchise ever. Winner of five Oscars, two for Born Free (1966), and one each for The Lion in Winter (1968), Out of Africa (1985) and Dances with Wolves (1990).