Interesting Facts

1st August Yorkshire Day

Seemingly police in Yorkshire have been hiding speed cameras in rural areas - in tractors. (After a spate of accidents, they are trying to catch speeding motorcyclists, but it seemss a bit sneaky to me. I bet they've been having a field day.  (Sorry).)

According to research conducted by eHarmony.co.uk, Queen's English is Britain's favourite accent. (Yes, good old RP (received pronunciation) came top in nine out of ten positive character traits including: attractiveness, intelligence, honesty, charm, sophistication and reliability. 1. Received pronunciation (RP) 2. Edinburgh 3. Australian 4. Irish (Republic of Ireland) 5. Yorkshire 6. American 7. Geordie 8. Mancunian 9. Glaswegian 10. Welsh RO is still perceived as a little posh. That's me! LOL)

A survey carried out by linguistics researchers at Manchester University found there were 7 different words for a bread roll in the UK. (In the South it was generally called a roll. In the North a bap or a bun. In the North-west a barm, or a muffin. In the Midlands a cob. In Yorkshire a tea cake! Now I'll go along with roll or a cob, but to me a bap is a softer, more floury bread roll, a muffin is an American cake, a bun is sweet and hopefully full of cream, and a tea cake is full of dried fruit and has to be toasted and served with lots of butter.)

According to a survey by RoxyPalace.com, British women find an Irish accent is the sexiest accent in the UK. (The success of the Irish accent (which also beat the French accent in a worldwide poll in 2009) is thought to be down to celebrity status of singer Danny O' Donoghue and One Direction's Niall Horan. And it probably doesn't hurt that Colin Farrell and James Nesbitt are Irish too, and Essex probably ended up at the bottom because of TOWIE.  (If you're not sure what TOWIE is, consider yourself lucky). The results of the British poll were:- 1. Irish - 28 per cent 2. West Country - 19 per cent 3. Geordie - 17 per cent 4. Mancunian - 11 per cent 5. Glaswegian - 8 per cent 6. Scouse - 6 per cent 7. Yorkshire - 5 per cent 8. Welsh - 3 per cent 9. Brummie - 2 per cent 10. Essex - 1 per cent ) !Note:- Irish = Ireland Geordie = Newcastle Mancunian = Manchester Glaswegian = Glasgow Scouse = Liverpool Welsh = Wales Brummie = Birmingham

Karam Chand and his wife Kartari have been married for 86 years, this could make them the UK's longest married husband and wife. (They live in Bradford, Yorkshire, but got married in Punjab, India in 1925 He is 106 years old and she is 99. The couple celebrated their 86th marriage anniversary yesterday. They have eight children, 27 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren.

The "Rhubarb triangle" is an area of West Yorkshire farms bordered by Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, where rhubarb is grown. (Actually I'm not sure if this qualifies as an "interesting place".)