French wasn't the "predominant" language back then. French was the Language used at the Royal Court, the general population still spoke old Anglo-Saxon, which prevailed, but absorbed many French words, as can be seen today in some of the strange, and many ways loads of our words are spelled (spelt) and sound.
There are still a ton of English words that have Germanic origin.... Most of those words you can work out with the way they're pronounced. For instance, schedule (pronounced shed-ule) either (pronounced I-ther) etc
This is why have different words for the animal and the food stuff. Beef is based on french boef for cow. But because they were the elites they'd order cow for dinner and use boef. Where the anglo-saxons were the farmers and kept cow for the animal
You're absolutely right, the Queen does not need a driving license. However, she generally only drives on her own land, mostly on the grounds of Windsor Great Park, surrounding Windsor Castle.
You failed at the first hurdle. 'LL' in Welsh is not an L sound. The stamp thing is an urban legend. The Treason Felony Act 1848 makes it an offence to do any act with the intention of deposing the monarch, but it seems unlikely that placing a stamp upside down fulfils this criterion. According to the Royal Mail, it is perfectly acceptable to put a stamp upside-down. The first stamp was the Penny Black, not the Black Penny. Finally, everyone knows Scotland's national animal is the Haggis. The Haggis has tartan skin and has a haunting bagpipe-sounding call. It has one set of legs shorter than the other so it can only walk round mountains in a clockwise direction 🤦♂
Prior to the invention of the postage stamp the recipient of a letter, not its sender paid for the postage. Postage was expensive and was based on the number of sheets of paper used as well as the distance it had travelled. However members of both houses of parliament could send letters free just by signing the envelope, a practice known as "franking". So the richest people in the country could send post free while the ordinary people had to pay extortionate amounts. Rowland Hill's invention wasn't just the stamp to prove pre-payment, it was also letter boxes into which letters to be sent could be placed and the universal fee which was significantly less than existing rates and did not depend on distance. Not surprisingly the Post Office was entirely opposed to the idea but Queen Victoria thought it a great idea and used her influence to get it adopted.
The Royal Mail had its own legislation & essentially "private police" right up till it was privatised, they did their own surveillance, arrest & prosecutions, in modern era for relatively minor offences such as theft of post (unlawfully delaying the Queens mail) Prior to the formation of the police in 1829 they investigated any & all mail related crimes, including murder of mail staff, it's possible they would at one point have claimed it was treasonous to misplace a stamp. It's also I believe still illegal to deface a bank note but no-one has been prosecuted for that in God only knows how long as far as I'm aware.
The Queen not only predates driving licences, but used to insist on driving old series 3 Landrovers on her estates. She knows her way around crash gearboxes and there are plenty of pictures of her working on Army trucks in WWII. Elegant but not prissy. Good with a side by side shotgun. My Grandfather, as an Australian, (we're a Commonwealth Country) got his letter from the Queen when he turned 100. She sent a photo of her wearing a green and gold dress (Oz's national colours). He said "Who's this lovely looking shiela", and "Nah I'm not 100, I'm 99" . He was always a joker. He died about 2 months shy of 102. Those letters from the queen are real.
It’s not a Black Penny, it’s the Penny Black! JK Rowling may have the better sales figures. But my favourite writer, Sir Terry Pratchett? Was, at one point, Britain’s most shop-lifted author.
The queen doesn't need a driving licence, nor has she ever officially passed a driving test. ...but she is a very good driver - she was trained as a driver and mechanic during WW2. She has even been known to take a visiting Arab dignitary for a drive. Said dignitary had said that women can't and shouldn't drive. So she scared the pants off of him.
@@r.h.8754 One suspects that her Dad's Army would have rigourously assessed her ability to drive before allowing her to set off with any vehicle, Daddies tend to get upset when their daughters bend things or injure anyone.
@@r.h.8754 In part I suppose those of a certain age would be in the forces or forces support - so if it moves salute it, if its in the way, drive it. ( not fully referenced in the Dads Army Film where Jones? Drives a Steam Road Roller and doesnt know reverse or how to cut off the regulator and flattens the tents )
@@recoveringscot3587 I believe it is only the Queen herself that has the exemptionm as licenses and passports are issued in her authority. The other Royals still require them to be issued.
The predominant language of England after the 1066 Norman invasion remained English. The French speaking Normans deposed, often brutally, the English ruling class, and their version of French became the language of government. But the common people still spoke English, which continued to evolve structurally incorporating some French words along the way. By the time that the rulers gave up on French, the English language had become richer.
@@chrishilton3626 true although it's rare. The Neville family (despite the French name are probably of partial Anglo-Saxon descent as are the Stanleys & Berkeleys. There are others but they often became politically powerful centuries later (ie the Howard family who are now the Dukes of Norfolk).
After the Normans conquered England, the locals discovered that all the new and interesting words made talking about the weather much more exciting. Consequently, the British then set off to pillage the world in search of any "spare vocabulary and loose grammar" ... unfortunately, it took them a while to realise that they should have been pilfering all the new and interesting cuisine...
Queen Elizabeth II drove an ambulance during the Blitz in London, before she was the Queen , of course, and if someone drove an ambulance they also had to be trained as a mechanic too (no automatic transmissions then, by the way); and as female ambulance driver she was needed to also be trained as a nurse. So, there she was a teenage mechanic, ambulance driver and nurse, and spoke German and French then already, while being bombed on by the Nazis. She's worked for her entitlements. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
The Queen did have a driving licence which is now in the army museum near Winchester. A friend of mine when she was in the army,was one of her driving instructors when she was Princess Elizabeth.
Yep, quite a few people who want a new umbrella do actually go the lost property offices and ask for an umbrella that looks like this or that. If you were to say "well it i black with a long curved handle" that should be at least 80% of them and you can get a nice new (to you) brolly at no cost. It's our take on recycling.
The reason why the British Library(est.1662) has so many books,is because it is the UK equivalent of the US Library of Congress;with every book published/publication printed,having to legally deposit 1 copy there within its archives.😀 Futhermore,after the British Libray,there are a further 5 'copyright deposit' ones,namely Oxford Univ.'s Bodleian Lib.,Camb.Uinv.Lib.,Nat.Lib. of Wales(Aberystwyth),Nat.Lib. of Scotland(Edinburgh) and Dublin Univ.'s Trinity College.😀
"Humpty Dumpty" was not an egg. It was in fact a cannon that sat on the city walls of Worcester. When being fired during the English civil war it recoiled backwards and fell damaging so badly that all the kings men could not repair it! hence the nursery rhyme.......
Humpty Dumpty’s origins are disputed. I was taught it was a canon on the wall in Colchester that surrounds the castle, there were significant civil war battles in the town.
Humpty Dumpty was a cannon mounted on the top of St Mary By The Wall Church in Colchester; it was destroyed when the Roundheads' artillery shot off the top of the Bell tower.
Cinemas ARE open in Northern Ireland on Sunday. If the law still exists, it is definitely NOT enforced ! A lot of people in Northern Ireland are still very particular about observing Sunday as a day of rest for religious reasons, consequentally, quite a lot of the smaller shops and businesses that you would find open in the rest of the UK do close on a Sunday. National chains like the supermarkets and shopping centres / malls are generally open on Sundays in the afternoon.
I think I'm right in saying that any book published in the UK must offer a copy to the British Library. I believe that originally you had to send the copy but that nowadays you simply have to offer it to them. As for Tim Berners-Lee - if you want a good reading reference book check out his called Weaving The Web.
It's not just the British Library, it's all the copyright libraries (the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Wales).
Bright Side where the video comes from is American and American education is appalling so maybe to them having that many is confusing especially for such a smallish land mass as the UK.
Mary & variations of it have been very popular in many countries. For many decades, Mary was by far the most common female name in the US. Only recently has it been replaced there by Jennifer.
The scouse thing is true :) They reckon it dates back to Viking times, originally called Lapskaus. It was often eaten by sailors and was originally made using cheap "scrag end", all the bits of meat the butcher couldnt sell for any other purpose. Originally they used "ships biscuit" to thicken it, but this later became potatoes. It's probably also been influenced by Irish Stew as there is a lot of history between Ireland and Liverpool. It's often made with beef, but my family has always made it with lamb.
As an Irishman ,now an adopted son of Birkhenhead ,married to a scouser, what you say Peter makes sense, maybe totally assimilated into Merseyside, as I much prefer Mrs C,s beef based scouse served with red cabbage and beetroot and buttered crusty bread...best wishes from the wirral peninsula...E
Back in the 1950's (& maybe a bit later) all cinemas and theatres were closed on Sunday. Our local one was used by a club on Sunday and let members. I think membership was by paying a 'subscription' at the door. But they did have a different programme showing that day.
Good point sir, the dreary Sunday afternoons even got a mention in Blood brothers... Mrs C and I have dreary memories of those thankfully far off days....
Tom Scott did a video about the short passenger flight if I recall, it's well worth your effort checking out his videos about odd places etc! I didn't know the origin of Scouser so that was cool. If you're curious, one of the early uses of postage stamps was in sending postcards, sort of like early text messages! There were multiple postal deliveries a day so you could organise some things by postcard I wish youtube wasn't so ridiculous about links, the Office of National Statistics has a graph thing that shows how various names have changed in popularity over time. I think if you search for top 100 names and Office of National Statistics you should be able to find it. The names for women were much more varied than men generally as there was a culture where men were expected to conform (so were given more common first names), while women were expected to stand out so they were given less common first names, but often given a safer middle name they could revert to. There used to be a more pronounced generational effect for women too, if you look at the graph for names like Gladys, Iris, etc, they show up big in the early 1900s then vanish, and you see similar spikes for other names too. If you find the Top 100 Baby Names Graphic, you'll see Amanda spiked in the UK in the 70s roughly, before dropping down in popularity. It's not useful, but I find it immensely curious! There have been a huge number of male names that just dropped in popularity around 75 like Kevin, Ian, Keith etc and I have no idea why
The Queen is on the obverse of a British coin, and her successor (Charles?) will also appear on British coins but his profile will be facing the other way. British monarch's profiles alternate in direction...so her father George VI was facing the other way.
Welsh is phonetic so once you’ve got the basic pronunciation right it’s really sensible. Far fewer irregularities than in English (watch out for the mutations though!)
Hi Amanda enjoyable vid as always, and the university bit might be because people outside of Britain only think of Oxford and Cambridge as they are always the ones mentioned in film and TV shows so don't realise that we have a lot more universities to offer, that's the thought I had at that part of the vid.
The part about the official language is wrong. French was the language of the Nobility ( The Norman's and then the Plantagenets) The language of the Barons and peasantry was sadon or old English, Whilst Latin was the language of the church.
Cinemas are opened on Sundays in Northern Ireland, I don't know anyone that's been prosecuted for going, I think its just an old law that's no longer enforced
@@LADYRAEUK I moved to Bavaria after my Service in the British Army so we are one hour ahead hear but a couple of days behind your Weather. It was brilliant Sunshine today, but thank you for bringing your own Sunshine in your Smile, Voice and Laughter 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿
A cup of tea and some gloomy weather...what MORE do you want??? Hee hee! Thanks again for yet another fun and interesting video Amanda, your videos always brighten up my day!☺
I love the unpredictable nature of our weather. Would hate to live in a place where it's boiling hot every day of the year or vice versa. Give me mostly gloomy any day.
1895-1907 is 12 years…it’s no wonder that these facts are ‘confusing’ to the narrator. Also, this guy does nothing for the perceived ignorance of Americans!
The British Library near Kings Cross does not contain the 170m books. Most of them are kept at their site in Yorkshire ( Boston Spa, Wetherby LS23 7BQ).
I think the reason they gave for the Scottish Royal Supporter being a Unicorn is more to do with it symbolising purity rather than any supposed hatred between it and the Lion.
Sorry but the Haggis is most definitely an animal. There have been several documentaries about them on BBC4. They originally ran wild in the Scottish Highlands but excessive hunting led to their disappearance in all but a few desolate outlying regions. Luckily there are now a number farms where domesticated Haggises are raised for the commercial market (& these are continually monitored to make sure they remain Rabies free) 😉😊
@@christopherworkman9148 I'm genuinely worried for you mate. The fact that you felt the need to explain that Haggises aren't really animals left me concerned for your mental wellbeing. Please tell me this was a joke and that you actually realised Thurgosh & I were joking...please! 😟
One thing that often confuses foreign visitors is having separate hot and cold water taps, and cannot understand why many houses still do not have mixer taps. The fact is that many houses here are relatively old with basic plumbing, and apart from one tap, usually in the kitchen, getting its fresh water directly from the water main, most of the taps, hot or cold, are fed by tanks. In large commercial buildings, most of the cold water comes from tanks in the roof space, which could easily have lost their coverings (if they ever had any) and the water is therefore contaminated by dust and even worse: this water is only used for washing or for flushing toilets; so if a tap is marked "not drinking water", take it seriously! Also, our sinks usually have plugs, so we fill the sink with a mix of hot and cold water to wash properly in with warm water. I just use the hot tap, which starts off running cold, followed by hot, so by the time the sink is full enough to use, the temperature is right...
The "universities" used to be "polytechnics". The marketing wanketeers got hold of the idea that it would be better if they were all called "universities".
The poly's becoming universities is why there are some cities with multiple universities now, like Sheffield (it has two - the old University of Sheffield, and the ex-poly Sheffield Hallam). I think Nottingham has 2 also, in a similar way.
@@merrygoblin Back in 1989, I had a pretty friend who whore a t-shirt with *OXFORD* written across her top in big letters with the word "polytechnic" written underneath in very small letters. On her chest you could could just about see it. You see : we all knew it was a bit of a joke. It's Brookes now. All it's done is to dilute the educational spirit of learning. This is why I said "marketing". Universities in this country is a massive business with the heads getting paid a salary of £400K upwards. Disgrace. Who pays for all this - ultimately?
The Queen got the equivalent of a driving licence during WW2 when she served in Auxiliary Territorial Service. Her Royal highness was a driver and mechanic..
The Welsh town name is hard to pronounce, but on a TV series back in the 90's called how2 the presenter garath Jones a Welshman did pronounce it on live tv
Brits drink more tea than americans drink coffee per person twice as much in fact. 165m cups of tea per day 2.35 cups per day per person vs 400m cups of coffee a day in the US 1.14 cups per person per day. In fact per person we drink more coffee too. 95m cups or 1.35 cups per person per day. We like our hot drinks, probably because the weather is so drab. That said though US coffee drinkers are more concentrated drinking 3 cups a day each on average vs the UKs coffee drinkers who drink 2 cups per day each on average.
Great vid. I did not know about the 'The Great Wheel' interesting will look it up. The publishers of every book that is published in Britain as send copies their books to the British Library and i think 5 other institution. So thousands of publications are delivered every day to it. Stamp being pedantic it should be 'Penny Black' not the other way round (I think). As I have mentioned before in Yorkshire the greeting is 'Now then'. In the Houses of parliament you will still see hooks to hang 'ones sword' up. Incidentally my mothers middle name was 'Mary' she hated her first name Doris, her mother first name was 'Fanny' and there were many jokes from my father at her expense. Look forward to the next edition. Best Wishes.
I remember when I was at school in Cruden Bay the subject came up during history class and one lad brought in a Penny Red which came in use after the PB did.
@@simonbutterfield4860 Thanks for your comment I knew about the 'penny blue' (I think) but not the red. Penny blues are supposed to be very rare and valuable Penny Blacks strangely no much. Best Wishes.
Queen Elizabeth has never needed a driver's licence, even though she was a mechanic and ambulance driver in WWII. She has owned Land Rovers as her personal vehicles at the Royal retreats (Sandringham, Windsor Park and Balmoral estates, and has actually repaired one while out on the Balmoral estate wilds. She still owns Land Rovers today
The Queen doesn't need a passport or driving licence as they are both issued by HM government of which she is the Head. All other Royal must have both.
The fact about the birds wasn't accurate. One, the birds should be starlings not gulls. They also only slowed the clock, not turned it back. The London eye isn't a Ferris wheel.
the Queen doesn't need a driving license as they are issued in her name, as is the passport. I think most libraries get over looked on how many books they own. even a small book shop will have over a thousands titles for sale. I personally drink around 10-14 cups of tea a day. my whole family are big tea drinkers, the kettle is always on in our houses. something I would add to the list would be ... the Queens Guard are serving soldiers protecting the palaces and castles. they are not there as a tourist attraction. so give them the respect they deserve.
The library at King's Cross contains 170 million in "items" in its catalog. This includes around 14 million books, but the majority is other materials.
I think what really confuses foreigners who can understand the English language is our sense of humour. We do irony and sarcasm, and within friends no topic is out of bounds. Get in with a true Brit and you'll find political incorrectness gone mad. Most of us, not the woke minority, don't give a faeces.
The oldest object in the UK is the Hakenthorpe Rock in North Ealing. Its been carbon dated at over 150 Trillion years old. Its next birthday is a week on Thursday.
The London Eye was intended only as a temporary attraction for the millennium. Due for demolition after five years, it was so popular it just stayed. The tower with Big Ben is called the Elizabeth Tower. No, the Queen does not need a driving licence.
What makes me laugh about the London Eye was when in the House of Lords, questions were asked about its safety in high winds. Can't remember who it was but the MP being asked the questions, stated it did have a ladder for use in an emergency. There was a few seconds of silence while the idea was pondered before everyone started laughing.
There is a very old nursery rhyme which goes "the lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown" which goes back to the wars between England and Scotland
Can you figure out the fact that you can go for a walk up The Downs. The answer is that The Downs are a set of rolling hills about 100 miles long along the lower bit of SE England
Nice one sir.....everything around here is prefaced with the....the wirral, over ....the water ( river mersey) , the Woodchurch, the Noctorum, ( both housing estates) ..the north end ( where all the docks between Wallasey and Birkhenhead are )
When I was dating a Welsh girl she taught me the Llanfair.....etc place name. She was very strict about the pronunciation and kept saying that it wasn't correct....but it sounded fine to me tbh....😀
British Library. Most of the inventory is not held at the Kings Cross site, but in Yorkshire. It was reported earlier in March 2022, that they are adding at least one more specialist Building, for storage. Humidity, Temperature, Oxygen and Light levels will be strictly controlled, to aid inventory preservation.
The Llanfair etc. etc. place in Wales is a sort of fake. Technically it does exist as a name, but it was invented in the 19th century by a local (a Publican I think?) to either drum up tourist trade or as a joke - I forget which. Prior to that it had just been called "Llanfair" by everybody. These days it is generally known by one and all as "Llanfair P G" as nobody can be bothered with the long and patently very silly full name.
@@ethelmini In recent years, Sophia has been given to more babies. The most common names for babies has been Oliver & Olivia for 5 years, so I don't know why Sophia is top of that 2018 list shown.
There are so many umbrellas lost - simply left behind - on tube and underground trains that London Transport sells them off (after a decent delay to allow them to be reclaimed) from the Lost Property Office.
Great Britain is the geographical name of the Island that comprises of England, Scotland and Wales, where as United Kingdom is the country name that comprises of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. Before Ireland was divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the United Kindom was Great Britian & Ireland.
Now - the clock on the towers of the Liver building in Liverpool is called Great George and is 2’6” wider than the one on the Westminster tower. The Liver birds are 26’ high, have a 13’ wingspan, are made of overlapping copper plates and weigh 3 tons each. These are facts. Every time a maiden of untarnished virtue enters the building, their wings flap. 🌞
Nice one Ray ,keep meaning to get the Ferry from Birkhenhead to Liverpool and have the guided tour of the Liver building and ascend the tower of the Anglian cathedral...local bucket list...
That long Welsh named place is actually shortened by the locals to Llanfair PG, it's located on Anglesey, not far from the Menai Straights and even has a train station. I have been there many times, since I live on the Northernmost part of Anglesey.
Hi Amanda some very interesting facts some of these i didn't know and im British those welsh names are very difficult to pronounce i love this video ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤i missed you're last one it got taken down by UA-cam 😮have a fantastic week lok forward to seeing your next video ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Maybe the Cornish pasty, the thick crust was so they could hold on to it without contaminating the rest of it, as well as dirt, their hands would have traces of arsenic from mining, they would discard the crust after eating the rest.
And some....Lloyd George ,commented on his Chapel brethren in Cricceth,in North Wales..quoting very loosely...on Sunday my brethren pray in Chapthe rest of the week they prey on each other..
The British Library at Kings Cross is amazing. I did a few research trips in London, mostly at the National Archives but a little bit in the British Library. It's a really imposing place. Super helpful staff though.
Thanks as always Amanda. Not so sure in what way foreigners would be confused by having 100 universities in the UK, unless they were trying to get into one and didn't know which one to choose!
@@highpath4776 She had a Driving Licence when she was Princess Elizabeth but after becoming Queen, no longer needed one to drive on the Queen's Highways (roads). No, the Queen does not need diplomatic papers as she is The Queen. There are queens in other nations but only one 'Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.
@@Thurgosh_OG So how do other countries know whom is the monarch (as in President Putin has rights by the office he holds in Russia with respect to jurisdiction in Ukraine (though some of that is additional protections Ukraine parliament gave when leaving the soviet union when arm twisted by Russia )). The generality applies, when the Sovereign of One nation travels elsewhere how is their travel organised - or do they only travel by invitation (noting that as head of state of many of the commonwealth countries and British Dependencies or Crown Colonies that the Queen could go to any of them at will).
as for the queen and her driving license, she learnt to drive and got her license when she served in ww2 as a driver, when she was just a humble Princess Elisaebeth :)
Aah yes. Welsh, the only current language in the world where vowels are optional extras hahaha. That "five mile long" place name is the longest place name in Britain, unsurprisingly. You might be able to find something on YT of someone pronouncing it. Rob Brydon or Michael Sheen maybe? Great entertaining video as always xxx
Welsh has 7 vowels - a, e, i, o, u, w and y - two more than English. Also, certain paired characters (like "ch", "dd" and "ll") are single letters in the Welsh alphabet ("ech", "edd" and "ell" respectively). So, for example, whilst the "pwllgwyngyll" part of that placename seems to have 12 letters and no vowels to an English person, it's actually only 10 letters in Welsh; 6 consonants and 4 vowels.
Llanfairpwll, as the locals call it, or Llanfair PG as it often appears, is an early example of a crafty local tourist gimmick. The name was extended deliberately to attract visitors, it made for a ridiculously long station nameboard, and has sold millions of decorated ashtrays and tins of shortbread ever since. The craft shops and tearooms are still raking in the cash from coach parties.
I can understand how Americans would hear it but even me a British person can now hear your British accent coming through stronger than your American one 😂 ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
Hi Amanda, having lived on Anglesey, (where that VERY long place name is!) i can assure you, that all the locals, refer to the village as LLANFAIR P.G....🙂
There's an old Irish library that locks you in a reading nook so you can't steal the old library book. The Royal standard or coat of arms has lions pasent in it so that's where the hatred come from.
It was the Penny Black, not the Black Penny for the first stamp. A little pedantic I know, but just sounds odd the way its wrongly described on the video. 😎
There's a Welsh village called Llanymynech. It straddles the Welsh English border where the pub is. On the floor of the pub there used to be (is it still there?) a brass divider (which I've seen though a long while back) on the floor dividing the Welsh and English sides of the bar. On Sundays everyone had to stand and drink on the English side, but could drink anywhere in the bar on the rest of the days in the week, as drinking alcohol was forbidden then in Wales on Sundays..
French wasn't the "predominant" language back then. French was the Language used at the Royal Court, the general population still spoke old Anglo-Saxon, which prevailed, but absorbed many French words, as can be seen today in some of the strange, and many ways loads of our words are spelled (spelt) and sound.
There are still a ton of English words that have Germanic origin.... Most of those words you can work out with the way they're pronounced.
For instance, schedule (pronounced shed-ule) either (pronounced I-ther) etc
A fair chunk of the general population still spoke various native Celtic languages back then, too.
This is why have different words for the animal and the food stuff.
Beef is based on french boef for cow.
But because they were the elites they'd order cow for dinner and use boef. Where the anglo-saxons were the farmers and kept cow for the animal
Correct and Latin was mainly spoken..
@@jgreen2015 And cow is from the Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) "cu", I believe.
You're absolutely right, the Queen does not need a driving license. However, she generally only drives on her own land, mostly on the grounds of Windsor Great Park, surrounding Windsor Castle.
You failed at the first hurdle. 'LL' in Welsh is not an L sound.
The stamp thing is an urban legend. The Treason Felony Act 1848 makes it an offence to do any act with the intention of deposing the monarch, but it seems unlikely that placing a stamp upside down fulfils this criterion. According to the Royal Mail, it is perfectly acceptable to put a stamp upside-down.
The first stamp was the Penny Black, not the Black Penny.
Finally, everyone knows Scotland's national animal is the Haggis. The Haggis has tartan skin and has a haunting bagpipe-sounding call. It has one set of legs shorter than the other so it can only walk round mountains in a clockwise direction 🤦♂
Oh, the childhood memories of Wild Haggis hunting holidays in Scotland.
Prior to the invention of the postage stamp the recipient of a letter, not its sender paid for the postage. Postage was expensive and was based on the number of sheets of paper used as well as the distance it had travelled. However members of both houses of parliament could send letters free just by signing the envelope, a practice known as "franking". So the richest people in the country could send post free while the ordinary people had to pay extortionate amounts.
Rowland Hill's invention wasn't just the stamp to prove pre-payment, it was also letter boxes into which letters to be sent could be placed and the universal fee which was significantly less than existing rates and did not depend on distance. Not surprisingly the Post Office was entirely opposed to the idea but Queen Victoria thought it a great idea and used her influence to get it adopted.
Viscous little sods too.
The Royal Mail had its own legislation & essentially "private police" right up till it was privatised, they did their own surveillance, arrest & prosecutions, in modern era for relatively minor offences such as theft of post (unlawfully delaying the Queens mail)
Prior to the formation of the police in 1829 they investigated any & all mail related crimes, including murder of mail staff, it's possible they would at one point have claimed it was treasonous to misplace a stamp.
It's also I believe still illegal to deface a bank note but no-one has been prosecuted for that in God only knows how long as far as I'm aware.
It's bizarre that the unicorn is Scotland's national animal.
The Queen not only predates driving licences, but used to insist on driving old series 3 Landrovers on her estates. She knows her way around crash gearboxes and there are plenty of pictures of her working on Army trucks in WWII. Elegant but not prissy. Good with a side by side shotgun.
My Grandfather, as an Australian, (we're a Commonwealth Country) got his letter from the Queen when he turned 100. She sent a photo of her wearing a green and gold dress (Oz's national colours).
He said "Who's this lovely looking shiela", and "Nah I'm not 100, I'm 99" . He was always a joker. He died about 2 months shy of 102. Those letters from the queen are real.
The Queen doesn’t have a driving license. She learnt to drive during WWII, when she was doing vehicle maintenance.
She drove the same range rover for decades i believe. And liked to do her own maintenance.
As st one point did many ex WW 2 service people
She also does not need a number plate on her official car
@@alansmith8694 because all registration numbers are owned by the Secretary of State that issues them on her behalf.
It’s not a Black Penny, it’s the Penny Black!
JK Rowling may have the better sales figures.
But my favourite writer, Sir Terry Pratchett? Was, at one point, Britain’s most shop-lifted author.
Parents buying the books for their kids.....Kids books always make good money if you can get them to pester the parents.
Also it's not an armour suit, it's a suit of armour!
@@andyholmes6380 Not to mention a pedant tick ...
The queen doesn't need a driving licence, nor has she ever officially passed a driving test.
...but she is a very good driver - she was trained as a driver and mechanic during WW2.
She has even been known to take a visiting Arab dignitary for a drive. Said dignitary had said that women can't and shouldn't drive. So she scared the pants off of him.
The Licence is for Driving on the (kings) highway, being monarch you dont need a licence for driving on your own road
@@r.h.8754 One suspects that her Dad's Army would have rigourously assessed her ability to drive before allowing her to set off with any vehicle, Daddies tend to get upset when their daughters bend things or injure anyone.
@@r.h.8754 In part I suppose those of a certain age would be in the forces or forces support - so if it moves salute it, if its in the way, drive it. ( not fully referenced in the Dads Army Film where Jones? Drives a Steam Road Roller and doesnt know reverse or how to cut off the regulator and flattens the tents )
@@highpath4776 Perhaps not, but the Queen's (and other Royals') personally-owned cars do need a valid registration plate. State Cars don't have them.
@@recoveringscot3587 I believe it is only the Queen herself that has the exemptionm as licenses and passports are issued in her authority. The other Royals still require them to be issued.
'Do not give them your life story'. Perfect.
The predominant language of England after the 1066 Norman invasion remained English. The French speaking Normans deposed, often brutally, the English ruling class, and their version of French became the language of government. But the common people still spoke English, which continued to evolve structurally incorporating some French words along the way. By the time that the rulers gave up on French, the English language had become richer.
Some of the Anglo-Saxon ruling class managed to be incorporated in the new Norman ruling class I think tho
Hence the word 'cow' and ,'beef'. Cow for the poor labourers on the land beef/beouf for the wealthy land owners.
@@chrishilton3626 true although it's rare. The Neville family (despite the French name are probably of partial Anglo-Saxon descent as are the Stanleys & Berkeleys. There are others but they often became politically powerful centuries later (ie the Howard family who are now the Dukes of Norfolk).
After the Normans conquered England, the locals discovered that all the new and interesting words made talking about the weather much more exciting. Consequently, the British then set off to pillage the world in search of any "spare vocabulary and loose grammar"
... unfortunately, it took them a while to realise that they should have been pilfering all the new and interesting cuisine...
Her Majesty the Queen doesn't need a: Driving License, Number Plates on a vehicle, Passport, Pilots License, Insurance.
It’s not Black penny, it’s Penny Black. At one time Scotland and England didn’t get on so hence the Unicorn and the Lion are enemies.
Unicorn just about sums up the SNP.
@@davidedbrooke9324 racist
I still dont know why it is a unicorn for Scotland (I am aware of the - Lewis Caroll ?- poem of the Lion and the Unicorn.
@@ianmuir6784 You obviously do not understand the meaning of that word.
@@highpath4776 It is strange. They look pretty friendly on the British Royal seal though.
Queen Elizabeth II drove an ambulance during the Blitz in London, before she was the Queen , of course, and if someone drove an ambulance they also had to be trained as a mechanic too (no automatic transmissions then, by the way); and as female ambulance driver she was needed to also be trained as a nurse. So, there she was a teenage mechanic, ambulance driver and nurse, and spoke German and French then already, while being bombed on by the Nazis. She's worked for her entitlements. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
The Queen did have a driving licence which is now in the army museum near Winchester. A friend of mine when she was in the army,was one of her driving instructors when she was Princess Elizabeth.
The princess had a driving licence but the Queen doesn't as when she was then head of state.
Yep, quite a few people who want a new umbrella do actually go the lost property offices and ask for an umbrella that looks like this or that. If you were to say "well it i black with a long curved handle" that should be at least 80% of them and you can get a nice new (to you) brolly at no cost. It's our take on recycling.
The reason why the British Library(est.1662) has so many books,is because it is the UK equivalent of the US Library of Congress;with every book published/publication printed,having to legally deposit 1 copy there within its archives.😀
Futhermore,after the British Libray,there are a further 5 'copyright deposit' ones,namely Oxford Univ.'s Bodleian Lib.,Camb.Uinv.Lib.,Nat.Lib. of Wales(Aberystwyth),Nat.Lib. of Scotland(Edinburgh) and Dublin Univ.'s Trinity College.😀
The softest and kindest sounding voice on UA-cam. Contagious
Thank you 😊
"Humpty Dumpty" was not an egg. It was in fact a cannon that sat on the city walls of Worcester. When being fired during the English civil war it recoiled backwards and fell damaging so badly that all the kings men could not repair it! hence the nursery rhyme.......
It's also been suggested that it may have been King Richard III.
This has been the most informative and interesting post yet....
Humpty Dumpty’s origins are disputed. I was taught it was a canon on the wall in Colchester that surrounds the castle, there were significant civil war battles in the town.
Humpty Dumpty was a cannon mounted on the top of St Mary By The Wall Church in Colchester; it was destroyed when the Roundheads' artillery shot off the top of the Bell tower.
Cinemas ARE open in Northern Ireland on Sunday. If the law still exists, it is definitely NOT enforced ! A lot of people in Northern Ireland are still very particular about observing Sunday as a day of rest for religious reasons, consequentally, quite a lot of the smaller shops and businesses that you would find open in the rest of the UK do close on a Sunday. National chains like the supermarkets and shopping centres / malls are generally open on Sundays in the afternoon.
I think I'm right in saying that any book published in the UK must offer a copy to the British Library. I believe that originally you had to send the copy but that nowadays you simply have to offer it to them. As for Tim Berners-Lee - if you want a good reading reference book check out his called Weaving The Web.
It's not just the British Library, it's all the copyright libraries (the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Wales).
@@alisonhill3941 I didn't know that Alison - thanks.
@@daveturnbull7221 The BL one goes to the storage place in Boston, Lincs
@@highpath4776 More knowledge - thanks 😁
@@highpath4776 It is not in Boston Lincs, but in Boston Spa West Yorkshire
No number plate on Her Majesty's Land Rover either!
I agree - not all of these are confusing. For example, the number of universities is surprising, but not confusing.
Agreed and it's probably over 100 more than we need.
A lot of them these days are "re-branded" polytechnics,
@@dave8204 Or bus shelters fitted with lighting.
Bright Side where the video comes from is American and American education is appalling so maybe to them having that many is confusing especially for such a smallish land mass as the UK.
He mentioned the stamp the wrong way around. He called it the black penny, but it is called the penny black.
Mary & variations of it have been very popular in many countries. For many decades, Mary was by far the most common female name in the US. Only recently has it been replaced there by Jennifer.
Sunday cinema in N Ireland is no longer illegal
The scouse thing is true :) They reckon it dates back to Viking times, originally called Lapskaus. It was often eaten by sailors and was originally made using cheap "scrag end", all the bits of meat the butcher couldnt sell for any other purpose. Originally they used "ships biscuit" to thicken it, but this later became potatoes. It's probably also been influenced by Irish Stew as there is a lot of history between Ireland and Liverpool.
It's often made with beef, but my family has always made it with lamb.
Lobscouse is mentioned in the book "Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Dana.
@@tomhaskett5161 thanks for sharing Tom,best wishes from the wirral peninsula...
As an Irishman ,now an adopted son of Birkhenhead ,married to a scouser, what you say Peter makes sense, maybe totally assimilated into Merseyside, as I much prefer Mrs C,s beef based scouse served with red cabbage and beetroot and buttered crusty bread...best wishes from the wirral peninsula...E
@@eamonnclabby7067 Yum!! Include me in!!!!
@@tomhaskett5161 in wigan we have similar called lobbies
Back in the 1950's (& maybe a bit later) all cinemas and theatres were closed on Sunday. Our local one was used by a club on Sunday and let members. I think membership was by paying a 'subscription' at the door. But they did have a different programme showing that day.
A few Churches use Cinemas on sunday mornings
This video is so wrong in so many ways. People must think N.I. is living in the 50's.
@@elemar5 Part of it is.
Good point sir, the dreary Sunday afternoons even got a mention in Blood brothers... Mrs C and I have dreary memories of those thankfully far off days....
In England, most shops were closed on Sundays until the 1994 Sunday Trading Act allowed them to be open. There was a lot of opposition to that.
Tom Scott did a video about the short passenger flight if I recall, it's well worth your effort checking out his videos about odd places etc! I didn't know the origin of Scouser so that was cool.
If you're curious, one of the early uses of postage stamps was in sending postcards, sort of like early text messages! There were multiple postal deliveries a day so you could organise some things by postcard
I wish youtube wasn't so ridiculous about links, the Office of National Statistics has a graph thing that shows how various names have changed in popularity over time. I think if you search for top 100 names and Office of National Statistics you should be able to find it. The names for women were much more varied than men generally as there was a culture where men were expected to conform (so were given more common first names), while women were expected to stand out so they were given less common first names, but often given a safer middle name they could revert to. There used to be a more pronounced generational effect for women too, if you look at the graph for names like Gladys, Iris, etc, they show up big in the early 1900s then vanish, and you see similar spikes for other names too. If you find the Top 100 Baby Names Graphic, you'll see Amanda spiked in the UK in the 70s roughly, before dropping down in popularity. It's not useful, but I find it immensely curious! There have been a huge number of male names that just dropped in popularity around 75 like Kevin, Ian, Keith etc and I have no idea why
What do you call a scouser in a suit? - the accused.
Dad joke alert....as an Irishman I,m considered quite balanced....I have a chip on each shoulder...
@@eamonnclabby7067 I love Dad jokes 😁
Another one of my American friends found confusing and amusing last time I was in Florida that instead of saying thank you I say Cheers
That should have been on the list! :o)
The Queen is on the obverse of a British coin, and her successor (Charles?) will also appear on British coins but his profile will be facing the other way. British monarch's profiles alternate in direction...so her father George VI was facing the other way.
Edward VIII didn't follow this rule for the few coins and stamps made for him, as wanted them to show his better side.
Welsh is phonetic so once you’ve got the basic pronunciation right it’s really sensible. Far fewer irregularities than in English (watch out for the mutations though!)
We get both, Amanda. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Hi Amanda enjoyable vid as always, and the university bit might be because people outside of Britain only think of Oxford and Cambridge as they are always the ones mentioned in film and TV shows so don't realise that we have a lot more universities to offer, that's the thought I had at that part of the vid.
Oxford's a complete dump, just Ask General Melchett.
The Queen was a qualified hgv driver in ww2
The part about the official language is wrong. French was the language of the Nobility ( The Norman's and then the Plantagenets) The language of the Barons and peasantry was sadon or old English, Whilst Latin was the language of the church.
Cinemas are opened on Sundays in Northern Ireland, I don't know anyone that's been prosecuted for going, I think its just an old law that's no longer enforced
The Sun is shining and Amanda is back with another Brilliant Video. Thank you Amanda for adding the Sunshine to my Life. 🌹
You’re very welcome! I hope you’re enjoying all the sun 🌞
Really I don't see any sun haha
Haha I’ve had sun all week, it’s been lovely
@@LADYRAEUK I moved to Bavaria after my Service in the British Army so we are one hour ahead hear but a couple of days behind your Weather. It was brilliant Sunshine today, but thank you for bringing your own Sunshine in your Smile, Voice and Laughter 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿
@@LADYRAEUK sun shiney days here on the wirral peninsula bounded by the mersey and the Dee and the Irish sea...geography and rhyme...E
People from Newcastle are called geordies because of a mining lamp they used.
A cup of tea and some gloomy weather...what MORE do you want??? Hee hee!
Thanks again for yet another fun and interesting video Amanda, your videos always brighten up my day!☺
Im glad you enjoyed it! I hope you have a lovely week!
Right back atchya ☺
I love the unpredictable nature of our weather. Would hate to live in a place where it's boiling hot every day of the year or vice versa. Give me mostly gloomy any day.
@@LADYRAEUK a cuppa and a kind word always welcome...the conversation always turns to the weather
Big Ben was named after my cousin's father in law, Benjamin Hall.
1895-1907 is 12 years…it’s no wonder that these facts are ‘confusing’ to the narrator. Also, this guy does nothing for the perceived ignorance of Americans!
The British Library near Kings Cross does not contain the 170m books. Most of them are kept at their site in Yorkshire ( Boston Spa, Wetherby LS23 7BQ).
I think the reason they gave for the Scottish Royal Supporter being a Unicorn is more to do with it symbolising purity rather than any supposed hatred between it and the Lion.
True. Lets face it, if there was that amount of hatred, the Scottish animal of choice would have been a Rabid Haggis .
Hahahahaha, haggis is not an animal, it is a scottish dish 🤣
Sorry but the Haggis is most definitely an animal. There have been several documentaries about them on BBC4. They originally ran wild in the Scottish Highlands but excessive hunting led to their disappearance in all but a few desolate outlying regions. Luckily there are now a number farms where domesticated Haggises are raised for the commercial market (& these are continually monitored to make sure they remain Rabies free) 😉😊
You sure make me laugh 😂 🤣
@@christopherworkman9148 I'm genuinely worried for you mate. The fact that you felt the need to explain that Haggises aren't really animals left me concerned for your mental wellbeing. Please tell me this was a joke and that you actually realised Thurgosh & I were joking...please! 😟
One thing that often confuses foreign visitors is having separate hot and cold water taps, and cannot understand why many houses still do not have mixer taps. The fact is that many houses here are relatively old with basic plumbing, and apart from one tap, usually in the kitchen, getting its fresh water directly from the water main, most of the taps, hot or cold, are fed by tanks. In large commercial buildings, most of the cold water comes from tanks in the roof space, which could easily have lost their coverings (if they ever had any) and the water is therefore contaminated by dust and even worse: this water is only used for washing or for flushing toilets; so if a tap is marked "not drinking water", take it seriously! Also, our sinks usually have plugs, so we fill the sink with a mix of hot and cold water to wash properly in with warm water. I just use the hot tap, which starts off running cold, followed by hot, so by the time the sink is full enough to use, the temperature is right...
We also don't have sinks in our bathrooms.
The "universities" used to be "polytechnics". The marketing wanketeers got hold of the idea that it would be better if they were all called "universities".
Well put....
It wasn't the marketeers it was Thatcher wanting more people to go to university so did it by allowing polytechnics the become universities.
The poly's becoming universities is why there are some cities with multiple universities now, like Sheffield (it has two - the old University of Sheffield, and the ex-poly Sheffield Hallam). I think Nottingham has 2 also, in a similar way.
@@merrygoblin Back in 1989, I had a pretty friend who whore a t-shirt with *OXFORD* written across her top in big letters with the word "polytechnic" written underneath in very small letters. On her chest you could could just about see it. You see : we all knew it was a bit of a joke. It's Brookes now. All it's done is to dilute the educational spirit of learning. This is why I said "marketing". Universities in this country is a massive business with the heads getting paid a salary of £400K upwards. Disgrace. Who pays for all this - ultimately?
You need to know the Welsh Alphabet. It differs slightly in certain ways to on how you.pronounce certain letters.
I didn't realise that, thank you :)
There was a video that said that The Queen doesn't need a driver's license
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and any jerk could make a video saying she does. The existence of a video is proof of nothing!
The Queen got the equivalent of a driving licence during WW2 when she served in Auxiliary Territorial Service. Her Royal highness was a driver and mechanic..
The Welsh town name is hard to pronounce, but on a TV series back in the 90's called how2 the presenter garath Jones a Welshman did pronounce it on live tv
They had John Humphrys say it as part of a question on Mastermind at least twice. John Humphrys is Welsh, of course.
Brits drink more tea than americans drink coffee per person twice as much in fact. 165m cups of tea per day 2.35 cups per day per person vs 400m cups of coffee a day in the US 1.14 cups per person per day. In fact per person we drink more coffee too. 95m cups or 1.35 cups per person per day. We like our hot drinks, probably because the weather is so drab. That said though US coffee drinkers are more concentrated drinking 3 cups a day each on average vs the UKs coffee drinkers who drink 2 cups per day each on average.
Great vid. I did not know about the 'The Great Wheel' interesting will look it up. The publishers of every book that is published in Britain as send copies their books to the British Library and i think 5 other institution. So thousands of publications are delivered every day to it. Stamp being pedantic it should be 'Penny Black' not the other way round (I think). As I have mentioned before in Yorkshire the greeting is 'Now then'. In the Houses of parliament you will still see hooks to hang 'ones sword' up. Incidentally my mothers middle name was 'Mary' she hated her first name Doris, her mother first name was 'Fanny' and there were many jokes from my father at her expense. Look forward to the next edition. Best Wishes.
I remember when I was at school in Cruden Bay the subject came up during history class and one lad brought in a Penny Red which came in use after the PB did.
@@simonbutterfield4860 Thanks for your comment I knew about the 'penny blue' (I think) but not the red. Penny blues are supposed to be very rare and valuable Penny Blacks strangely no much. Best Wishes.
Other girl's names that have disappeared basically: Muriel, Ethel, Winifred, Wilhelmina, Wilma. Enmmeline, May.
Queen Elizabeth has never needed a driver's licence, even though she was a mechanic and ambulance driver in WWII. She has owned Land Rovers as her personal vehicles at the Royal retreats (Sandringham, Windsor Park and Balmoral estates, and has actually repaired one while out on the Balmoral estate wilds. She still owns Land Rovers today
😊👍🏻
The Queen doesn't need a passport or driving licence as they are both issued by HM government of which she is the Head. All other Royal must have both.
👍🏻thank you
There is a rhyme which begins... The lion and the unicorn were foghtonh for the crown... Refers to the 'fight' over the crown of scotland.
The fact about the birds wasn't accurate. One, the birds should be starlings not gulls. They also only slowed the clock, not turned it back.
The London eye isn't a Ferris wheel.
You're right: the London Eye isn't a ferris wheel, it's an eyesore and a disgrace to architecture!!
He also said the great wheel was demolished after 22 years 1895-1907 is not 22 years
@@alexfarman4580: I've seen campus videos showing American difficulties with basic maths.
The stamp upside down thing is just a myth.
the Queen doesn't need a driving license as they are issued in her name, as is the passport.
I think most libraries get over looked on how many books they own. even a small book shop will have over a thousands titles for sale.
I personally drink around 10-14 cups of tea a day. my whole family are big tea drinkers, the kettle is always on in our houses.
something I would add to the list would be ... the Queens Guard are serving soldiers protecting the palaces and castles. they are not there as a tourist attraction. so give them the respect they deserve.
3 tea bags a day, in a perpetual pot
It's a driving licenCe.
The kettle goes on at least 4 times at Clabby Towers....
The library at King's Cross contains 170 million in "items" in its catalog. This includes around 14 million books, but the majority is other materials.
Ah thank you!
I think what really confuses foreigners who can understand the English language is our sense of humour.
We do irony and sarcasm, and within friends no topic is out of bounds. Get in with a true Brit and you'll find political incorrectness gone mad. Most of us, not the woke minority, don't give a faeces.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
The oldest object in the UK is the Hakenthorpe Rock in North Ealing. Its been carbon dated at over 150 Trillion years old. Its next birthday is a week on Thursday.
The London Eye was intended only as a temporary attraction for the millennium. Due for demolition after five years, it was so popular it just stayed.
The tower with Big Ben is called the Elizabeth Tower.
No, the Queen does not need a driving licence.
Private Eye did a piece on the giant tax dodge it was
@@AdjustableSquelch typical!! Will look it up. Thanks.
What makes me laugh about the London Eye was when in the House of Lords, questions were asked about its safety in high winds.
Can't remember who it was but the MP being asked the questions, stated it did have a ladder for use in an emergency.
There was a few seconds of silence while the idea was pondered before everyone started laughing.
@@grahvis Brilliant!!! 😂😂😂
There is a very old nursery rhyme which goes "the lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown" which goes back to the wars between England and Scotland
Can you figure out the fact that you can go for a walk up The Downs. The answer is that The Downs are a set of rolling hills about 100 miles long along the lower bit of SE England
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Nice one sir.....everything around here is prefaced with the....the wirral, over ....the water ( river mersey) , the Woodchurch, the Noctorum, ( both housing estates) ..the north end ( where all the docks between Wallasey and Birkhenhead are )
Big Ben was cast (or recast) in the same foundry as the liberty bell.
When I was dating a Welsh girl she taught me the Llanfair.....etc place name. She was very strict about the pronunciation and kept saying that it wasn't correct....but it sounded fine to me tbh....😀
The name was made up especially for the new (in 1869) railway station to attract tourists to the area and get into the record books.
@@RoyCousins Not that there were record books back then - at least, not of the Guinness variety ;)
British Library.
Most of the inventory is not held at the Kings Cross site, but in Yorkshire.
It was reported earlier in March 2022, that they are adding at least one more specialist Building, for storage.
Humidity, Temperature, Oxygen and Light levels will be strictly controlled, to aid inventory preservation.
Guess who’s back!
Yeah!
The Queen does not have a passport or driving license as they would be issued to her by her government!
Lol that makes sense 🤦♀️🤣
Hope you have a lovely week!
@@LADYRAEUK same to you boss!
Technically it would be issued on behalf of HRH Elizabeth II to HRH Elizabeth II
That’s even to confusing for me!
The Llanfair etc. etc. place in Wales is a sort of fake. Technically it does exist as a name, but it was invented in the 19th century by a local (a Publican I think?) to either drum up tourist trade or as a joke - I forget which. Prior to that it had just been called "Llanfair" by everybody. These days it is generally known by one and all as "Llanfair P G" as nobody can be bothered with the long and patently very silly full name.
10:04 - Those are the most common names for baby girls. The most common female first name in the UK is Susan.
Surely it's Sophie, not Sophia anyway???
@@ethelmini In recent years, Sophia has been given to more babies.
The most common names for babies has been Oliver & Olivia for 5 years, so I don't know why Sophia is top of that 2018 list shown.
There are so many umbrellas lost - simply left behind - on tube and underground trains that London Transport sells them off (after a decent delay to allow them to be reclaimed) from the Lost Property Office.
Great Britain is the geographical name of the Island that comprises of England, Scotland and Wales, where as United Kingdom is the country name that comprises of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. Before Ireland was divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the United Kindom was Great Britian & Ireland.
There's also the British Isles which is the geographical term for UK, Ireland and the smaller islands like channel islands, Isle of Man etc.
@@noggintube yep, just don’t tell the Irish that, they’d rather say Great Britain and Ireland lol
Now - the clock on the towers of the Liver building in Liverpool is called Great George and is 2’6” wider than the one on the Westminster tower. The Liver birds are 26’ high, have a 13’ wingspan, are made of overlapping copper plates and weigh 3 tons each. These are facts. Every time a maiden of untarnished virtue enters the building, their wings flap. 🌞
They are 18’ high!
I bet that happens often 🤣😊
Nice one Ray ,keep meaning to get the Ferry from Birkhenhead to Liverpool and have the guided tour of the Liver building and ascend the tower of the Anglian cathedral...local bucket list...
Hi Amanda people seem to think Brits speak posh we don't we've so many regional accents
I was once one of them 🙈🤣
@@LADYRAEUK me too and I only crossed the Irish sea....I,m pretty sure I was difficult to understand..
That long Welsh named place is actually shortened by the locals to Llanfair PG, it's located on Anglesey, not far from the Menai Straights and even has a train station. I have been there many times, since I live on the Northernmost part of Anglesey.
Ah okay! Thanks 😊
No problem. It still has the longest train station name in the world. Some Welsh people have a problem saying the name too.
Hi Amanda some very interesting facts some of these i didn't know and im British those welsh names are very difficult to pronounce i love this video ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤i missed you're last one it got taken down by UA-cam 😮have a fantastic week lok forward to seeing your next video ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Thanks Stuart! Let’s hope the sun keeps shining and have a lovely week!
I worked with a nurse from that village on Anglesey, she referred to her village as Llanfair PG...phonetically is ClanfairPG...hopefully that helps..
@@eamonnclabby7067 My family in Wales also always rerer to it as Llanfair PG.
On the royal Crest there is the lion and the unicorn; the unicorn has a chain around it's neck to keep it in check!
The main thing that confuses foreign visitors is our sense of humour. The proof is in these comments 🤣🤣
What? You don't think that the haggis is the national animal of Scotland??
@@michaeljohnangel6359 of course. They look lovley in their kilts 😁😁
A "Chippy" is short for Chip Shop but it can also means a Carpenter.
A "shipwright" is also generally called a "chippy" in the RN
Your accent Amanda is starting to sound more and more British 🇺🇸🇬🇧😊
& yet Brits who moved to Oz in the 1960's (when they were 10yo) still have their accents down to a 'T'??
Maybe the Cornish pasty, the thick crust was so they could hold on to it without contaminating the rest of it, as well as dirt, their hands would have traces of arsenic from mining, they would discard the crust after eating the rest.
Probably they don't open cinemas there is because it's church on Sunday
And some....Lloyd George ,commented on his Chapel brethren in Cricceth,in North Wales..quoting very loosely...on Sunday my brethren pray in Chapthe rest of the week they prey on each other..
In Northern Ireland they now do open cinemas on Sundays. The God Squad were overruled.
The British Library at Kings Cross is amazing. I did a few research trips in London, mostly at the National Archives but a little bit in the British Library. It's a really imposing place. Super helpful staff though.
I’d love to visit
Thanks as always Amanda. Not so sure in what way foreigners would be confused by having 100 universities in the UK, unless they were trying to get into one and didn't know which one to choose!
Because Americans think that the UK = London, and that "UK" and "England" are synonyms. Why would you need 100+ universities in a single city?
Or if they were trying to pronounce Loughborough University 😋
The Chinese government seems to have bought up a lot of universities up and down the country...
Most of the British Library's stock is held at the British Library facility at Thorp Arch near Wetherby, West Yorkshire.
A driving license and a passport issued in her name
She can issue one for herself
Prob doesnt need Passport, but would need dipolmatic papers as head of state for other countries?
@@highpath4776 She had a Driving Licence when she was Princess Elizabeth but after becoming Queen, no longer needed one to drive on the Queen's Highways (roads). No, the Queen does not need diplomatic papers as she is The Queen. There are queens in other nations but only one 'Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.
@@Thurgosh_OG So how do other countries know whom is the monarch (as in President Putin has rights by the office he holds in Russia with respect to jurisdiction in Ukraine (though some of that is additional protections Ukraine parliament gave when leaving the soviet union when arm twisted by Russia )). The generality applies, when the Sovereign of One nation travels elsewhere how is their travel organised - or do they only travel by invitation (noting that as head of state of many of the commonwealth countries and British Dependencies or Crown Colonies that the Queen could go to any of them at will).
Already knew the egg bit, it's also the reason eggs are refrigerated in the USA but not in the UK.
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as for the queen and her driving license, she learnt to drive and got her license when she served in ww2 as a driver, when she was just a humble Princess Elisaebeth :)
confusing fact. even though we drive on the left hand side of the road, we're driving on the right side of the road :)
lol !
Aah yes. Welsh, the only current language in the world where vowels are optional extras hahaha. That "five mile long" place name is the longest place name in Britain, unsurprisingly. You might be able to find something on YT of someone pronouncing it. Rob Brydon or Michael Sheen maybe? Great entertaining video as always xxx
Welsh has 7 vowels - a, e, i, o, u, w and y - two more than English. Also, certain paired characters (like "ch", "dd" and "ll") are single letters in the Welsh alphabet ("ech", "edd" and "ell" respectively). So, for example, whilst the "pwllgwyngyll" part of that placename seems to have 12 letters and no vowels to an English person, it's actually only 10 letters in Welsh; 6 consonants and 4 vowels.
Still on with that ill-educated bollocks about Welsh not having any vowels, huh?
I can assure you the cinema's are open on sunday in Northern Ireland .
Welsh uses a lot of compound words whereas English does not. You can literally keep adding words together without spaces lol
Llanfairpwll, as the locals call it, or Llanfair PG as it often appears, is an early example of a crafty local tourist gimmick. The name was extended deliberately to attract visitors, it made for a ridiculously long station nameboard, and has sold millions of decorated ashtrays and tins of shortbread ever since. The craft shops and tearooms are still raking in the cash from coach parties.
I can understand how Americans would hear it but even me a British person can now hear your British accent coming through stronger than your American one 😂 ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
🤣🤣🤣lol
@@LADYRAEUK Amanda for PM....
I'm from N Ireland. I've been to the cinema today. It's Sunday.
Hi Amanda, having lived on Anglesey, (where that VERY long place name is!) i can assure you, that all the locals, refer to the village as LLANFAIR P.G....🙂
True....worked with a fellow nurse from that village who referred to LlanfairPG...
Yeah Big Ben is just the bell inside the building but the building itself is known as Elizabeth tower.
There's an old Irish library that locks you in a reading nook so you can't steal the old library book.
The Royal standard or coat of arms has lions pasent in it so that's where the hatred come from.
It was the Penny Black, not the Black Penny for the first stamp. A little pedantic I know, but just sounds odd the way its wrongly described on the video. 😎
There's a Welsh village called Llanymynech. It straddles the Welsh English border where the pub is. On the floor of the pub there used to be (is it still there?) a brass divider (which I've seen though a long while back) on the floor dividing the Welsh and English sides of the bar. On Sundays everyone had to stand and drink on the English side, but could drink anywhere in the bar on the rest of the days in the week, as drinking alcohol was forbidden then in Wales on Sundays..
The big Ben clock has it time regulated by adding or removing an old penny from its regulator