Another chance for you to test your North East knowledge with our latest quiz focusing on the History of North East England.

1. Which Northumberland town, named from the valley in which it is situated, is famed for its pagan-style tar barrel ceremony that takes place here every New Year’s Eve?

2. In which North East town can you find the headquarters of The Northern Echo newspaper?

3. What is the name of the river that joins the River Wear near Bishop Auckland?

4. What is the name of the impressive and picturesque four-corner towered castle situated near Haydon bridge that is now a hotel?

5. Which former North East athlete, now a sports presenter, is known as ‘the Jarrow Arrow‘?

6. Who was the record-breaking yachtsman born in Newcastle upon Tyne, who became the first to sail solo around the world in both directions, both in world record-breaking time?

7. Daniel Adamson, who developed the famous Manchester Ship Canal came from which North East town?

8. What is the name of the household cleaner invented by William Handley at Byker in 1929?

9. Who was the Pelton-born miner’s leader (pictured) who founded the Northern Union of Pitmen in 1831

10. William De Hartburn (of Hartburn near Stockton-on-Tees) bought a manor from Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and so changed his name to become the first member of which famous family?

11. The River South Tyne and the River Tees both begin their journey on which Cumbrian mountain that forms the highest point in the Pennines?

12. What was the name of the Sunderland-born naturalist who was the saviour of the Spanish Ibex?

13. In which North East town was the Scottish king, William the Lion captured in 1174 and the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore killed in 1093?

14. Where can you find the Mahogany Drift Mine; Ravensworth Terrace; Bishop Auckland’s Sun Inn and the Annfield Plain co-op?

15. Which famed eighteenth century explorer was born at Marton near Middlesbrough in 1728?

16. Where might you have found the Dabble Duck Colliery?

17. What was the name of the Viking wapentake or administrative district that stretched from Teesdale to Hartlepool and named after a small village between Stockton and Darlington?

18. What is the name of the magnificent mansion, now a National Trust property that lies close to the Northumbrian town of Rothbury, noted for its wonderfully wild landscaped grounds?

19. What are ‘Aelius’ and ‘Pons’ in the Roman name for Newcastle Pons Aelius?

20. Beonnam-Wall (meaning within the wall) on Tyneside is now known by what name? It was the site of a Roman fort called Condercum.

21. What is the name of the river that flows through the centre of Darlington?

22. The neighbouring Yorkshire valleys of Lunedale and Baldersdale are offshoots of which North Eastern river?

23. What was the name of the County Durham equivalent of the Domesday Book compiled by the Bishop of Durham in 1183 and named from a place now located in South Tyneside?

24. Which place in the North East was known as Monkchester in Anglo-Saxon times?

25. Which beautiful well-planned stone village dating from 1752 was largely constructed using stones from a twelfth century abbey that stood on the site?

26. The Derwentcote furnace near Gateshead dates from the 1720s. What was manufactured here?

27. Who was murdered by an angry mob at Gateshead in May 1080?

28. Which famed novelist, whose sales topped 100 million was born in Leam Lane, Tyne Dock in 1906?

29. The Portrack and Mandale cuts were nineteenth century short cut canals that cut through loops of which North East river?

30. Where might you find a life-size animated silver swan?

31. Situated near Tanfield and dating from 1727, what is the name of the oldest surviving railway bridge in the world?

32. Harbottle and the Druid’s Stone can be found in the upper parts of which North East dale?

33. Around 1691 swordmakers from Solingen in Germany settled in which North East town to develop their industry there?

34. In North East dialect what is a Jinny Spinner?

35. TV architect George Clarke was born in which North East town?

36. Which village near Bishop Auckland indirectly gives its name to a major North East shopping centre?

37. What was the name of the Alnwick-born astronomer who established Greenwich as the Prime meridian?

38. What was invented by the Newcastle electrical engineer John Henry Holmes in 1884?

39. What was Sir Walter Scott describing when he said “For with the flow and ebb, its style, varies from continent to isle“?

40. In which North East town can you find Carlisle Park?

Answers below

 

Answers

1. Allendale Town.
2. Darlington.
3. The River Gaunless.
4. Langley Castle.
5. Steve Cram.
6. David Scott Cowper.
7. Shildon.
8. Domestos.
9. Thomas Hepburn.
10. The Washington family, William bought the manor of Washington and was an ancestor of George Washington.
11. Cross Fell.
12. Abel Chapman.
13. Alnwick.
14. Beamish Museum.
15. Captain James Cook.
16. Shildon.
17. Sadberge.
18. Cragside.
19. Pons means bridge. Aelius was the family name of the Emperor Hadrian.
20. Benwell.
21. The Skerne.
22. The Tees.
23. The Boldon Book (Boldon Buke).
24. Newcastle.
25. Blanchland.
26. Steel.
27. William Walcher, the Bishop of Durham.
28. Catherine Cookson.
29. The Tees.
30. The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle.
31. Causey Arch.
32. Coquetdale.
33. Shotley Bridge.
34. Cranefly (also called Daddy Long Legs).
35. Sunderland born and raised in Washington.
36. Eldon: Eldon Square. The square took its name from John Scott, Lord Eldon whose title came from the Durham village.
37. Sir George Airy.
38. Electric light switch.
39. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
40. Morpeth.