SOME ENGLISH TRIVIA

                                           Fun Facts

        Since the  English drive on the left side of the road, they enter a round-about to the left, which seemed strange indeed!

               Birmingham is known as the city of 1000 trades, as there were no trade guilds in the city. The trade guilds always have been, and still are, very strictly controlled.

          
  One evening we went to the local church and climbed up into the bell tower for the weekly bell ringing. It is a very involved and precise activity. The six men and women were playing tunes on the bells, and being pretty much tone deaf, I have to admit I didn’t hear much difference in the sounds. It is quite a knack to get the bells upright, where they stay until finished, and then they are lowered over a period of time. Once upright they swing and their weight turns them around in a 360-degree range. The whole process is much more complicated than I ever thought.

          
  Mr. Fortnum of the Fortnum and Mason department store was the butler to Queen Anne in the 1700s. As such, he was given the used candles. A candle was only lit once, even if it burned only for seconds. He collected these used candles, sold them, and made enough money to leave the Queen’s service and to go into business with Mr. Mason.

            A yeoman farmer is one who owns his farm vs. a tenant farmer who rents his plot of land.

            All bus and truck drivers in England, by law, are required to stop for a 45-minute rest every 4-½ hours. They are limited to driving NO more than 9 hours a day.

            I’ve previously explained ceiling bosses. Well, a carble head is the decorative part at the end of a column or curved piece in a structure. They often are concrete and appear carved with a figure of a head or a floral motif.

            It was light a little after 4:00AM each day, and stayed light until nearly 10:00PM.

          
  I had to put up with duvets at two of the hotels. I still dislike them, and am much happier with blankets.

            China clay is quarried, but only a small amount of it is sent to the china industry. It is the paper industry that has a big demand for it, as it is the substance that makes paper shiny for all those colored ads.

            A Lemon Shanty is a drink that is half beer and half lemonade.