Fifty Ways to Love England (Not the Football Team)
Fifty Ways to Love England (Not the Football Team)
On Shakespeare’s birthday (which also happens to be St George’s Day) (23 April) I came across a list of 50 objects which are English.
- Stonehenge
- Uffington White Horse (1380–550 BC)
- Oak Tree
- English pubs (since 1189)
- Magna Carta (1215)
- Regional accents and identities (1360)
- The Church of England, growing religious tolerance (1530)
- William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
- The Putney Debates / The Levellers (1647)
- Cornish Pasty / Jamaican Patty
- Tea with sugar – a Colonial Legacy (1650)
- Habeas Corpus / Common Law (1697)
- Hedgerows
- Industrial Revolution and Railways (1700s)
- Sunday Roast Dinner with Yorkshire Puddings (1700s)
- Birthplace of Modern Sports
- Brick Lane Church / Synagogue / Masjid
- Jane Austen (1775–1817)
- Queueing
- Mary Anning (1799–1847)
- RNLI / Lifeboat (1824)
- Chartists (1838–1857)
- Talking about the Weather
- Fish and Chips (1860s)
- Police Officer’s Helmet (1863)
- L S Lowry (1887–1978)
- Seaside Windbreak (late 1800s)
- Marmite (1902)
- Suffragettes (1903–1914)
- George Orwell (1903–1950)
- Alan Turing (1912–1954)
- ‘Jerusalem’ (1916)
- Village War Memorials (1919)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (1922)
- Kindertransport (1938–1939)
- Battle of Britain Pilots (1940)
- National Health Service – NHS (1948)
- Tim Berners-Lee
- Paddington Bear (1958)
- Sporting Success (Football in 1966)
- Cheese Rolling and Notting Hill Carnival
- ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (1967)
- ‘Dad’s Army’ (1968)
- ‘Kes’ (1969)
- Anarchic Youth
- Lamb Balti (1970s)
- ‘Harry Potter’ (1997)
- Angel of the North (1998)
- Baby on Board Badge (2006)
See www.aVeryEnglishChat.org.uk
A Few More Suggestions
Here are a few more. Can you think what is particularly English? Let me know via theeditor@kibworthchronicle.com. Do you agree or even disagree with the choices?
- Sliced White Bread
- A Full English (Cooked Breakfast)
- Lord’s Cricket Ground
- Potholes in Abundance
- Bob-a-Job Week (now discontinued)
- ‘I Spy’ Books
- The Shipping Forecast
- BBC Pips (1923)
- ‘The Archers’ (1951)
- Marmalade
- Last Night of the Proms
- London Olympics (2012)
- Charles Dickens
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Alan Bennett
- David Attenborough
- Victoria Wood
- ZX81 Personal Computer
- Hovercraft
- Dr Martens Boots
- Barbour Clothing
- Marks & Spencer
- Morgan Cars with their Wooden Chassis
- Scones with Jam and Cream or Cream and Jam!
- Mini Cars
- Hornby Double O Train Set
- Bottle Kicking in Hallaton
- Red Postboxes and Telephone Boxes
- Windsor Castle
- English Heritage
- National Trust
- Historic Houses Association
- Air Ambulance Helicopter
- Scouts
- Desert Island Discs
- Cat’s Eyes
- Penicillin
- DNA / Alec Jeffreys
- British Library
- Greenwich Mean Time
- Kerbs and Pavements
- Victorian Sewers / Bazalgette
- Politeness
- Walkers Crisps
- Underground Maps
- Thanking the Bus Driver as You Get Off
- ‘Mind the Gap’
- Church Bell Ringing
- Manicured Lawns
Street Names of Kibworth (Part 2): Halford Road
