These fun facts about Great Britain are
guaranteed to surprise you.
There are plenty of fascinating facts about the Tower of London in the United Kingdom
1. Most people refer to the clock tower next to the
Houses of Parliament as Big Ben. However, that is only
the name of the 13-tonne bell inside. The actual tower is
known as St. Stephen’s Tower.
St Stephen’s Tower (Big Ben), London
2. The Brits invented the first adhesive postage stamp
used in a public postal system, back in 1840. The
‘Penny Black’ had a picture of Queen Victoria on it, and
as the name suggests, cost one penny. Before that time,
it was usually the recipient who paid the postage price,
which varied according to how far the letter had
travelled.
3. After the Penny Black stamp came the Penny Red.
This was introduced as once a Penny Black had been
used, the post service would cross the stamp out in red
to show it had been used. Lots of people discovered you
could easily wipe this off and reuse the stamps. Once
the Penny Red came in, black ink was used to cross out
the stamp, making them much harder to reuse.
4. The Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch is the longest
name of a town in the world. If you want a photo with the
name, head to the train station where the sign stretches
right down the platform!
Can you say Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwlllllandysiliogogogoch in Wales?
5. Can you believe the Brits invented speeding tickets?
The very first speeding ticket was issued to a driver
named Walter Arnold in Kent in 1896, after he was
caught going four times the speed limit. As the speed
limit was only 2mph, he was fined for reaching a top
speed of 8 mph!
6. It’s thought that Ian Fleming used a bus route close to
his home as inspiration for James Bond’s codename.
The route 007 used to go from Canterbury to the Kent
coast.
7. Among Queen Elizabeth II’s more bizarre titles is
‘Seigneur of the Swans’. Officially, the reigning monarch
owns any unmarked mute swan in open water in both
England and Wales… so most of the swans in Britain.
To go with this unusual title is the census that takes
place on the Thames each year in July, called Swan
Upping.
Did you know who owns all of the swans in Great Britain
8. Great Britain is home to the shortest scheduled
passenger flight in the world. The 2.7 km flight from
Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands
in Scotland has a scheduled time of one and a half
minutes, although the record stands at 47 seconds.
Tickets with Loganair start from £7.25 one way.
9. The record for the world’s shortest war is held by
Britain and Zanzibar. The Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896
lasted just 38 minutes.
10. Most people travel on the tube for speed and
convenience but there’s one route in particular which is
utterly pointless. If you travel from Leicester Square tube
station to Covent Garden tube station, it takes longer on
the underground than walking, as the locations are
minutes apart.
11. One of Britain’s most bizarre events is the annual
cheese-rolling competition that takes place on Coopers
Hill in Gloucestershire. At the top of the hill a 3kg Double
Gloucester cheese is sent rolling down. Competitors
race after it and the first to cross the finish line wins the
cheese! The aim is to catch the cheese, but that’s tricky
when it reaches speeds of up to 70 mph. Sadly, due to
health and safety reasons (yep, there were injuries!) the
cheese has been replaced by a foam replica.
12. The Tower of London has had many famous
inhabitants, but arguably the most famous are the six
black ravens. Charles II wrote a royal decree which said
that if any of the birds flew away, then the kingdom
would fall. These days, they clip their wings to make it
impossible (as well as having a few spares ready!) This
is one of our favourite facts about Great Britain!
The Tower of London is home to six black ravens
13. While you’d assume The Queen has the power to go
wherever she likes, she’s not allowed to enter the House
of Commons. This law has been in place since 1642,
when King Charles I visited the Commons to arrest five
MPs in the run-up to the English Civil War. When she
does give speeches at the State Opening of Parliament,
she delivers them from next door in the House of Lords.
14. The Queen is also the only person from Great Britain
who doesn’t need to possess a British passport in order
to travel. The royal family website states, “as a British
passport is issued in the name of Her Majesty, it is
unnecessary for The Queen to possess one. All other
members of the Royal Family, including The Duke of
Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales, have passports.”
The only person in Britain not to own a British passport is The Queen
15. According to experts, the British accent changes
every 25 miles, and it’s thought a lot of the accents have
developed as a result of geographic location, early
settlers and immigration. For example, it’s been said that
until the mid-1800s Liverpudlians sounded similar to
those from Manchester, but once the port industries
boomed, the Irish and Welsh labourers gradually
influenced the accent to give it a Scouse tone. It’s also
thought that Anglo Saxons arriving from various parts of
Europe and settling in different areas, created their own
regional accents.