This Christmas we’re delighted to provide you with a festive quiz for you and your friends or work colleagues to share.
All the answers can be downloaded here, but are also found in Manson’s Bristol Miscellany - the perfect gift for a Bristolian this Christmas!
TEN MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS
1. In the 1950s crowds gathered on College Green to look at two mysterious figures that had been delivered to the construction site of the Council House. The architect returned from holiday to say they were to go on the roof. What did the figures represent?
2. In what square is there a replica of part of the Bristol High Cross?
3. In the early 1960s Guy Bailey was turned down for a job on Bristol’s buses, why?
4. In what year did John Cabot set sail from Bristol in the Mathew to seek the land of America?
5. What chemical element gives Bristol Glass its distinctive blue colour?
6. The oldest known Mikveh in Europe, dating from 1100, is situated in Bristol. What is a Mikveh?
7. Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Temple Back, Bristol in 1821. What is her claim to fame?
8. What was the surname of the family that owned Ashton Court?
9. Where might you find Western Spike Speedwell, Fingered Sedge and Autumn Squill?
10. Which Bristol building was used for the first time on August 3 1858, replacing a previous facility in Guinea Street?
REALLY OLD BRISTOL!
1. What area of Bristol was known as Abonae in Roman Times?
2. The name Bristol comes from Anglo Saxon words Brycg and Stow. What do they mean?
3. What is the name of the central Bristol pub named after flat-bottomed boats that sailed across to the River Wye?
4. Besides the Avon – what other River flows through Bristol?
5. In what book was Knowle valued at 40 shillings?
POWER & POLITICS
1. Which King created the county of Bristol in 1373?
2. What building in the centre of the city was not included in the county and remained part of Gloucestershire until 1629?
3. After the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, King Henry VII made a pilgramage to Bristol to give thanks for his victrory at a Holy Well. Where is it?
4. What was the name of the Monastery in the centre of Bristol that was dissolved by Henry VIII?
5. From what island in the Bristol Channel did Marconi send his first radio transmission?
LAW & ORDER
1. In which Bristol pub was the Pie Poudre Court?
2. What building constructed in 1880 was loosely inspired by Carisbrooke Castle and helped with Bristol’s law and order?
3. In what district was a prison built on the site of a pleasure garden following the 1877 Prison Act?
4. Where in 1793 did the militia open fire on a crowd of people, killing 14, during riots?
5. What was the function of the boat named the Pyronaut in Bristol?
MAKING MONEY
1. Who set sail in the Mathew in 1497?
2. What name is given to the “counting tables” that stand in Corn Street where people would conclude deals?
3. What kind of business did Charles Heal & Sons operate in Bristol?
4. What sort of vehicle is a Bristol Type 401?
5. In 1949 the3 then biggest aeroplane in the world was made in Bristol – what was its name?
6. Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry was a new blend in the 1860s – what was the original sherry dating from the seventeenth centuyry called?
7. What type of bus (designed in Bristol) was driven by Reg Varney in the 1970s comedy On The Buses?
8. In which churchyard is the grave of 18-year-old slave Scipio Africanus?
9. Where did the USA establish its first consulate in Europe in 1792?
10. What was created to provide the main entrance into Bristol’s Floating Harbour?
Click here to download the answers
