These questions will tell you just how Norfolk you are. Less than ten and you’re a grockle. More than ten, you’re getting there. The full twenty? Congratulations, you’re one of us. To keep you on your toes, there are two trick questions.
1 Do you call this location…
a) Happys-berg
b) Haysbru?
c) Hapiz-borough
Norfolk dialect – how to pronounce Wymondham and Happisburgh
2 These are the first two lines of the Canaries’ football anthem, On The Ball City (the oldest known football song still in use). What are the next three…
Kick it off, throw it in, have a little scrimmage,
Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die…
3 Which of these things did Norfolk hero Horatio Nelson say…
a) When confronted with his Brancaster mussels, ‘I see no chips’
b) I am a Norfolk man and glory in being so
c) Very flat, Norfolk
4 Most church towers are square, in the Norman fashion, but many of Norfolk’s are round. Why is this?
a) In the event of war, round corners can’t be blasted off
b) You can’t make square corners with knapped flint
c) It was the Saxon style
Norfolk churches and cathedrals
5 Samphire is what?
a) An edible salt marsh plant
b) A gentleman’s club in Norwich
c) An early seaplane prototype of the Spitfire, tested on Breydon Water
6 Before Harry Potter, the best-read children’s story was written by Anna Sewell in Great Yarmouth at her home close to St Nicholas Parish Church. What was it?
a) Paddington Bear
b) Swallows and Amazons
c) Black Beauty
7 Who brought the famous Canary to Norwich?
a) Flemish refugees who had them as pets because they were ‘cheep’
b) Polish miners who dug chalk under the city
c) John Bond when he managed Norwich City FC in the 1970s
8 Bloaters are what?
a) Norfolk rhyming slang for a car
b) People who have eaten too many Great Yarmouth seafront chips and ice cream
c) Herring from Great Yarmouth
9 Who wrote, ‘The principle of an equality of rights is clear and simple. Every man can understand it, and it is by understanding his rights that he learns his duties; for where the rights of men are equal, every man must, finally, see the necessity of protecting the rights of others, as the most effectual security of his own’? A clue: it inspired George Washington.
a) Thomas a Becket
b) Thomas Paine
c) Terry Thomas
The Norfolk man who saved the American War of Independence
10 The Erpingham gate at Norwich’s Norman cathedral is named after Sir Robert Erpingham who…
a) Led the Welsh archers at Agincourt
b) Was a predecessor of legendary cowboy sheriff Wyatt Earp
c) Was the Witchfinder General
Norwich notables – 11 people who helped make the City of Stories
11 Close to the Norman cathedral is Tombland. How did it come by its name?
a) It was an early burial site in the city
b) It’s Saxon for ‘open place’
c) It was a filming location for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
12 What is a Stewkey Blue?
a) A cheese from north Norfolk
b) A flag used to start sailing races at the Brancaster Regatta
c) A cockle from the tidal creeks at Stiffkey
13 Norfolk has the best malting barley in the UK because…
a) It’s grown at height in north Norfolk and benefits from salty sea frets
b) It’s grown in the fertile reclaimed soil of The Fens in West Norfolk, drained by Dutch engineers
c) It’s grown in the chalky soil of water meadows in mid-Norfolk
Barley, beer and brewing in Norfolk
14 What statue is on top of the Nelson Monument at Great Yarmouth?
a) England’s greatest naval commander
b) A model of The Victory’s figurehead
c) Britannia
The Nelson Monument at Great Yarmouth
15 What was found on Norfolk’s Deep History Coast?
a) 850,000-year-old human footprints
b) A 650,000-year-old mammoth skeleton
c) A 500,000-year-old flint axe
Explore the Deep History Coast
16 In Norfolk dialect, what is a Dickey?
a) A person from Dickleburgh, home of Thorpe Abbott’s museum to the Mighty Eighth Air Force
b) A donkey
c) A stomach upset
17 Cromer crabs are so sweet because…
a) They feed off the world’s longest chalk reef
b) The dressed crab has sugar added to it
c) They live in fresh water pools
18 Pocahontas is depicted on the village sign at Heacham because…
a) She married local man John Rolfe
b) She appeared in a travelling circus
c) She was shipwrecked on the nearby beach
How a Norfolk man created The Special Relationship
19 When the Romans turned up in Norfolk in AD46 what did they find? Pictured here is Burgh Castle which they built.
a) That Great Yarmouth didn’t exist
b) That there were rabbits everywhere. They nicknamed them Ben Furs
c) That Norfolk already had direct roads, such as the Acle Straight
Romans Boudicca and the Iceni in Norfolk
20 Thetford, famous for its nearby forest, has a statue of whom?
a) Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire
b) Thomas Paine, who helped fuel the American War of Independence
c) Captain Mainwaring from Dad’s Army – it was filmed here
Answers
1 b) Hays-bru
2 On The Ball City, never mind the danger, Steady on, now’s your chance, Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal!
3 b) Horatio Nelson
4 It was the Saxon style, but the other two are plausible
5 a) Samphire is an edible saltmarsh plant
6 c) Black Beauty
7 a) Flemish refugees more than 300 years ago
8 c) Herring from Great Yarmouth
9 b) Thomas Paine, driving force of American Independence, born in 1737 in Thetford
10 a) Sir Thomas led the Welsh archers at Agincourt
11 b) It’s Saxon for ‘open place’
12 a) A cockle from Stiffkey
13 a) It’s grown at height and benefits from salty sea frets
14 c) Britannia
15 A trick question! The answer is all three.
16 b) Donkey
17 a) They feed off the world’s longest chalk reef
18 a) She married local man John Rolfe
19 a) That Great Yarmouth didn’t exist
20 Another trick question. It’s all three!
