Great Britain has a long and colourful history which has and still creates some amazing facts and trivia. We have listed some of the weird and wonderful facts, amazing UK trivia and strange UK laws below. Please send us any new British facts or strange laws.

Some strange, but all true.........

It is an offence to impersonate a Chelsea Pensioner

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple

The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Berwick-upon-Tweed was officially at war with Russia for 110 years.

If you find a Cab-driver in London not carrying a bale of hay overboard, he is breaking the law.

Even though being the sovereign of The United Kingdom, Her Majesty the Queen is not allowed to enter the City of London with seeking the permission of its Lord Mayor.

In England, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day.

William the Conqueror ordered that everyone should go to bed at eight o’clock.

There are over 30,000 John Smiths in Britain

In 1945, a flock of starlings landed on the minute hand of Big Ben and put the time back by five minutes.

In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That’s where the phrase, “goodnight, sleep tight” came from.

The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Britain is he only country in the world which doesn’t have the country’s name in its postage stamps.

Nowhere in Britain is more than 74½ miles from the sea.

Portugal is England’s oldest ally. The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty signed in 1373 is still in force

Although the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the city, only six people were killed.

The lance ceased to be an official battle weapon in the British Army in 1927

There are more chickens than humans in England.

Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner to be kept in the Tower of London.

Dying is illegal in the Houses of Parliaments.

Placing a postage stamp bearing the monarch’s head upside down on an envelope is considered as act of treason.

A law passed in 1585, making it illegal for women to “cause a nuisance with abusive or argumentative language”. A woman guilty of scolding had to wear a scold’s bridle, or metal cage, enclosing her head. The Criminal Law Act of 1967 finally abolished the punishment, and women may now scold freely.

The Licensing Act of 1872 explains that operating a cow or steam engine while intoxicated carries a prison sentence

In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas.

In the floor of Westminster Abbey is a tiny stone marking the burial place of the poet Ben Jonson. He was too poor to pay for the normal grave space, so he is buried standing up.

In London, it is illegal for a person with the Plague to flag down a taxi. No cab may carry corpses or rabid dogs.

In York it is perfectly legal to shoot a Scotsman with a crossbow upon seeing one, except for on Sundays. However any Scotsman caught drunk or with a weapon can still be shot on a Sunday, except with a bow and arrow. Similarly in Chester it is legal to shoot a Welsh person with a crossbow, as long as it is within the city walls and is done after midnight.

By law it is legal for a pregnant woman to relieve herself anywhere she wishes.

Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.

When New Scotland Yard was being built in 1888, the torso of a woman, headless and without arms, was discovered in the foundations. All the resources of the Criminal Investigation Dept. failed to find the murderer or the identity of the victim. And so Scotland Yard was built on the site of an unsolved murder.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men's beards

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance

On Oct. 17, 1678, the body of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was discovered in a field near the present Regent's Park called Greenbury Hill. Later three men were executed for the murder. Their names were Green, Berry, and Hill.

In the UK, a man who feels compelled to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his rear wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.

The head of any dead whale found on the British coast is legally the property of the King; the tail, on the other hand, belongs to the Queen

In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store

In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter

It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour

Great Britain is the largest island of Europe and ranks eighth in the list of the largest islands of the world.

The UK is the third most populated island of the world.

By 1800 in England some two hundred crimes that were punishable by death. They included forgery, horse-stealing, sheep-stealing, picking pockets, stealing five shillings (25p) from a shop, damaging Westminster Bridge, and impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner not to mention treason, murder, and attempted murder.

In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset.

London's first traffic island was put in St. James's Street in 1864 at the personal expense of a Colonel Pierpoint, who was afraid of being run over on his way to his Pall Mall club. When it was finished, he dashed across the road to admire his creation and was knocked down by a cab.