Friday Factoids (2006.11)

March 24, 2006 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

Kerri emailed me something amusing yesterday:

One of the British national daily newspapers asked readers “What does it mean to be British?”

Some of the emails are hilarious but this is one from a chap in Switzerland: “Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.”

The newspaper was The Telegraph and they posed the question back in July last year – there are two pages of replies (here and here) which contain some gems, so I thought this week’s Friday Factoids should be on “all things British”.

England is part of Great Britain, which is part of the United Kingdom – need clarification? (Even Microsoft Encarta gets it wrong!)
The history of Britain goes back a long way – the Romans invaded Britain in 55BC, the Vikings invaded in the 9th–11th centuries, and it was the turn of the Anglo-Saxons in the 11th–13th centuries.
Great Britain came in to being in 1707, with the Act of Union that joined England and Scotland; Northern Ireland joined to form the United Kingdom in 1801.
Britain has a population of about 60 million (about twice that of Canada) with a growth rate of 0.3%; it ranks 20th in the world in terms of population size.
The population density of Britain is ~588 people per square mile (230 people per km2) – that’s more than twice as densely populated as France (100 people per sq.km) and nine times as densely populated as the USA (27 people per sq.km)!
Dependent areas include Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena and Ascension, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands (phew!)
Highest mountain: Ben Nevis in Scotland, at 1,343m.
Longest river: River Severn, 354 km (220 miles) long; it rises in Wales and flows to the Bristol Channel. (The Thames is 215 miles long.)
Largest lake: Lough Neagh 396sq.km (153 sq miles) in Northern Ireland.
Deepest Lake: Loch Morar in the Highlands of Scotland, 310 m (1,017 ft) deep.
Highest waterfall: Eas a’Chual Aluinn, from Glas Bheinn, also in the Highlands of Scotland, with a drop of 200 m (660 ft).
Total land area: 242,514 sq km (93,638 sq mi) … which is slightly smaller than the US state of Oregon, or just under half the size of France!
The coastline length around mainland Great Britain is 11,072.76 miles.
Funny place names (c/o Ordnance Survey):

From Cold Christmas (Hertfordshire) and Christmas Cross (Shropshire) to Holly Green (Worcestershire) and Ivy Tree (Cumbria), there are places scattered across the country where it feels like Christmas all year round – even if only in name.

As it approaches midnight on Christmas Eve, don’t forget to hang up your Stocking (Herefordshire) and leave out a Carrot (Angus) for Rudolph. You can pucker up at Mistletoe Oak in Herefordshire, dream of a white Christmas in Snow Falls (North Yorkshire), or make your way to Wiseman’s Bridge (Pembrokeshire) by the light of a Star (Somerset) – although you may like to use a good map instead.

For those not worried about their waistline, there’s always Turkey Island (Hampshire) with a side helping of Cranberry (Staffordshire) and Sproutes (West Sussex), followed by Pudding Hill (Windsor). Wash it all down with a couple of Brandys (Cornwall) or Baileys (Essex) and use your Nut Crackers (Devon) to break open your Brazils (Essex) or The Walnuts (Milton Keynes).

There are sackfuls of festive places from Cornwall right up to the Scottish islands. You can visit Bethlehem (Carmarthenshire) without even getting near an aeroplane, or practise your Yuletide songs in Carrol (Highland).
One that amuses me is Grimsby; named by the Vikings, it means “ugly town”!