If you’ve ever wandered round anywhere and wondered what a building used to be, if it’s famous for anything or home to someone well-known from history, a new historical quiz trail is for you.
Developed by local Liz Foster, Quiz Trail is a printed booklet showing a circular self-guided trail aimed at sharing interesting history about Kent and Sussex towns.
With time on her hands during the pandemic, Liz created the first one all about Rochester, finally being able to put into place her lifelong passion for local history. She put all her new-found free time to good use researching her local area and decided to share some of the quirky things she found out, with others.
History made easy, on the move
They’re written in an easy to read magazine style, bringing to life days gone by and stepping you into the shoes of those who used to live there through fun and interesting storytelling.
Perfect for summer days out – and it won’t cost the earth; each trail is priced from £4 £5.99 (newer ones are at a higher rate to reflect increased printing costs)
One of the Rochester booklet’s facts is that Henry VIII met his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves in Rochester.
Find out about Canterbury’s famous visitors, Herne Bay’s Big Freeze, links to prime ministers, Charles Dickens’ Kent, more royal connections, the origin of the sandwich and an elephant at a harbour. George Orwell’s undercover trip to Kent dressed as a tramp, to get into a workhouse, and wartime legacies.
The trail asks you to look up and across the street, to spot different pieces of architecture that tell you something about the history of the town.
Quiz Trail takes you on an accessible walking route, where you can find the answers to the questions as you go – in the architecture, historical legacies and street names.
You’ll be told to look up a street, down an alley or across the road, when usually you might simply look straight ahead.
Summer fun
Liz’s daughters Becky and Laura Sims were keen to help their Mum in creating the Quiz Trail, as exploring and being out walking has been something they’ve always enjoyed together, so they’ve all been working together to research and come up with the trails, stories and facts.
People are taken on a route around the town, with information for children aged five and up, plus some more in-depth information for the grown-ups too. Liz, Becky and Laura wanted to make sure it was an activity that all ages can enjoy together – families with younger children through to active retired. It’s been popular with grandparents to do with their grandchildren.
Accessible
One of their priorities was to make the routes accessible for wheels – buggies, prams and wheelchairs. Liz and her girls had a very close family member who was a wheelchair user and so not only did Liz have the understanding of what routes are actually accessible, but also experience of the frustration of not being able to take part because it wasn’t.
All quiz trails have detailed explanations on the website of the route.
Liz said: “The brochures were developed from my love of local history. When I moved to Rochester, I went and found out lots about it and with so much interesting stuff to know, I thought I can’t be the only one who would find it interesting! Once I’d started I couldn’t stop as Kent history is so fascinating and we now have fourteen Quiz Trails!
“When the girls were young, we did what most of us do – have a day trip somewhere, walk around the middle popular bit, have something to eat and drink, get an ice cream and go home all having had a lovely day out.
But we went home not knowing very much about the place we’d just visited. Who were the people of the past? What were the town stories? What went on there? Who was misbehaving?!
“History can be known for being boring and so the challenge I set myself was to find an exciting way to get it all across and that’s when we came up with the circular route, quiz and booklet combo.
“The walking quiz trail can be a quick whizz about or a slow meander; you could even do it a bit at a time – useful in the UK where a downpour is never far away!
“People who live in the town might learn something new, families can have a fairly cheap and fun day out together and visitors can learn some really interesting things about the buildings they walk past on their travels.
“A walk around a town is so much more fun when you’re looking for clues and could win a prize at the end!
“And they are all accessible – tried and tested because we don’t want anyone to be excluded from the fun.
“With everything being so expensive, our little booklets might provide an inexpensive but wonderful day out, giving people a reason to go out, get some fresh air, exercising their bodies and brains at the same time!
“Great for families and great for visitors – you could even take them on a trail you’ve already done to show off how much you know, stopping for some lovely eats and treats along the way.”
Win a prize
The Quiz Trails include questions for children and adults and once you’ve finished and collected all the clues, you can enter a prize draw to be in with the chance of winning a prize!
Trails are from 1-2 miles and take 1-2 hours, or more if you stop lots.
There are now 15 trails written for Kentish towns:
Broadstairs
Canterbury
Deal & Walmer
Faversham
Herne Bay
Margate
Ramsgate
Rochester
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Rye
Sandwich
Sevenoaks
Tenterden
West Malling
Whitstable
Liz has also strayed over the border into East Sussex with her Rye and Eastbourne Quiz Trails.
Quiz Trail is available to buy online, or from a local shop – all listed on the website.
www.quiztrail.co.uk