Portal:United Kingdom/Did you know/2008

...that the Elizabethan Sir John Thynne built the great house at Longleat and founded the family which became Marquesses of Bath?
...that the English historian Sir Raymond Carr also writes about fox hunting?
...that London's St James's Club (1857-1978) was claimed to be the only gentlemen's club with a room devoted solely to backgammon?
...that as well as being the only contemporary anthology of 17th century Scottish Gaelic verse, the Fernaig manuscript is written in a form of English orthography unique to the author?
...Englishman Christopher Merret wrote the first description of the méthode champenoise used to make sparkling wine, long before it was documented in Champagne?

...that Herbert Armitage James (pictured), who was headmaster of Rugby School for 14 years, had one of the best stamp collections in England?
...that award-winning biographer Jenny Uglow described her dictionary of women's biographies as "a mad undertaking, born of a time when feminists wanted heroines and didn't have Google"?
...that Sir George Everest, after whom Mount Everest was named, is buried at St Andrew's Church, Hove, despite being born in Wales, dying in London and having no apparent connection with the church or town?
...that Donald Cameron ('Taillear Dubh na Tuaighe') ("Black Tailor of the Axe") got his nickname after killing the rival Scottish Highlands clan chief in battle with a Lochaber axe?

No DYK entries for this month

...that Chorley Old Hall, the oldest inhabited country house in Cheshire, consists of two ranges, one medieval (c.1300) (pictured), the other Elizabethan (mid-16th century)?
...that Edward Cocker's Arithmetick was such a popular textbook of mathematics that over 100 editions were published over a period of more than a century?
...that Scottish footballer John Cushley was a modern languages graduate, who acted as a Spanish translator when Celtic F.C. attempted to sign Real Madrid striker Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1964?

... that Runcorn Town Hall (pictured) was originally built as Halton Grange, a mansion for Thomas Johnson, a local soap and alkali manufacturer?
... that on every May 1, the hamlet of Ickwell celebrates May Day with dancing around a Maypole and with the crowning of a May Queen?
... that the Transition Towns movement inspired Totnes, England to introduce their own town-wide currency redeemable only in local shops?
...that the endowment by Edmund Meyrick, a Welsh cleric and philanthropist who died in 1713, is still awarding scholarships to students at Jesus College, Oxford after nearly three centuries?

No DYK entries for this month

Fern collecting

... that pteridomania is the Victorian era craze for fern collecting (shown) and fern motifs in decorative art?
...that the inscription on the bottom of William Hogarth's Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse was altered 4 times between 1758 and 1764?
... that the English Riviera Geopark in Torbay, United Kingdom is the world's only urban Geopark?
... that an eye of Edward Oldcorne, who was tortured to reveal his part in the Gunpowder Plot, is kept as a holy relic?

Daily Express Building, Manchester

... that the Daily Express Building (pictured), an Art Deco former printing press, is Manchester's only listed building constructed in the 1930s?
... that Aberdeen's Northern Co-operative Society declared a loss of £7 million in 1992, and, unable to recover, went into receivership in 1993, bringing to an end a 132 year old business?
... that Dickie's Bladder-fern was first found in a yawn in Scotland, but that Victorian fern collectors may have removed every specimen from this site?
... that the music video for British electropop band Hot Chip's song "Boy From School" was said to invoke the memory of the children's art series, Art Attack?

La Princesse

... that La Princesse (pictured), a giant mechanical spider, roamed the streets of Liverpool, England as part of the 2008 European City of Culture celebrations?
... that Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure featured comedians Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness taking part in "strange but quintessentially British sporting events", such as cheese rolling and bog snorkelling?
... that the 12th-century St Wulfran's Church, Ovingdean is one of only two extant churches in England with that dedication?
... that Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, an architect from Shrewsbury, England, designed the first iron bridge in the world?

Emmeline Pankhurst

...that British activist Emmeline Pankhurst (pictured) once slapped a police officer so she would get arrested to raise awareness about the need for women's suffrage?
... that architect Stiff Leadbetter’s house Elvills was the first completely new house of the Georgian Gothic revival in England?
... that Reuben Noble-Lazarus became the youngest footballer to make an appearance in the Football League when he came on as a substitute in Barnsley's 3–0 defeat to Ipswich Town on 30 September 2008?
... that Sir Trevor Williams of Llangybi in Wales changed sides between Royalists and Parliamentarians four times in the English Civil War, before being imprisoned for the crime of scandalum magnatum?

Banc Ty'nddôl sun-disc

... that the Banc Ty'nddôl sun-disc (pictured), a gold ornament discovered at Cwmystwyth, is over 4,000 years old, making it the earliest gold artifact discovered in Wales?
... that the force-feeding of suffragette, arsonist and hunger-striker Lilian Lenton caused food to enter her lungs and led to public outrage?
... that David Morrissey gained 2 stone (13 kg) for his role as Gordon Brown in The Deal?

Herman Landon

... that Herman Landon (pictured) commanded five different British Army divisions during the First World War?
... that the 14th-century Tree House, the former manor house of Crawley, England, was named after an ancient elm whose trunk was hollowed out to form a room in which travellers stayed overnight?
... that British rocket scientist Daniel Jubb claims to have built his first rocket at age five?
... that in 1908, Maypole Colliery in Abram, Greater Manchester, was the site of an underground explosion which killed 75 miners?