Icons of Englishness?

Subject: Icons of Englishness?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:51 AM

These are HMG's designated Icons of Englishness.
Stonehenge
The Angel Of The North
SS Empire Windrush
Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII
A cup of Tea
Alice In Wonderland
The "Routemaster" Bus
The King James Bible
The Spitfire
"Jerusalem" (Hymn)
Obviously Stonehenge predates the arrival of Angles or Celts into Britain by a very long time.
Aside from that,Errors? Omissions?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: dozy rozy
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:52 AM

queues.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: sian, west wales
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:59 AM

I don't think the Angel has been around long enough to be 'iconic'. 'Iconic' suggests that it has a special place in the national psyche.

I think Big Ben would count, although it was named after a man whose seat was in Wales (and whose wife was responsible for much of what is considered iconically Welsh).

Puffins maybe?
Roses?
Lavendar?
Crumpets? or Hovis?

siân

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:59 AM

From the Yorkshire Post, 9/03/2006 Thornborough Henges in North Yorkshire have replaced foxhunting as an icon of Englishness.

eric

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:03 AM

Devonshire Cream...Yorkshire Puddings.....Lancashire hotpot.....Lands End......Tower of London...Houses of Parliament.....White Cliffs of Dover......could go on a bit..........

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Bert
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:10 AM

Wot no jellied eels?
and was Chad English?
Prefabs
The Goons
Carry On Movies
Petticoat Lane
Noel Coward
The Seaside
A stick of Rock
Fish & Chips
Pork Pies

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: jonm
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:19 AM

Morris dancing?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:28 AM

How about snobbishness and class distinction?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:28 AM

Wot no beer? No pub? No old maids cycling to communion across the cricket square? Changing the Guard at Fuckingham Phallus? Keep Left signs? Robin Hood?

Interesting that they've included the classic product of paedophilia in the canon. I thought Paedophilia was the state capital Pennsylvania...

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:35 AM

Fox hunting
lamping
Hare coursing
smoking
Risk assessments

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:40 AM

Cricket
Vera Lynn
Bangers and Mash(no Minestrone)
Fair Play
Losing

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:41 AM

Bert is doing what most English do, confusing British and English. The Goons had an Irishman (Spike Milligan), a Weshman (Harry Secombe), an Englishman (Peter Sellers) and that chap from Peru, Michael Bentine. The Carry on Films were also British. Will they ever learn?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:45 AM

Spike Milligan was born in India.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 04:59 AM

Michael Bentine was born in Watford.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 05:25 AM

Scotch bastards were born in scumland - so what!

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 05:30 AM

Omission:The F.A.Cup is also on the official list,though it is not clear whether they mean the Trophy or the Competition.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 05:47 AM

I don;t see how the SS Empire Windrush fits into the English icon group. Maybe into the British as representative of the open arms of the nation (hah!)?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 05:56 AM

I think that our dicks should be included.
Spotted dicks deserve a special mention.
Oozing with custard of course.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 06:02 AM

Bird's Eye...or should we avoid that at all cost!

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Lancashire Lad
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 06:03 AM

White Cliffs of Dover
Fish and Chips
Toby Jugs
Morris Dancing
Fox Hunting
St Pauls Cathedral
Cross of St George
Pint of Bitter
Red Telephone Boxes (sadly now gone)
Black Cabs
Cobbled Streets
Red Pillar Boxes
The Lark Ascending

Yes I know a few of these apply equally to Britain as a whole, but I'm sure you get my drift

Cheers
LL

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 06:11 AM

saying "Sorry!"
Penguin paperbacks
Being blown up and not retaliating
allowing the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish a dissproportionate amount of taxes raised in England

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 06:17 AM

LL:We've got a couple of Red Telephone Boxes over here in France.The real thing!Theres one in a Café Bar in Berlin too.Seems to be quite a few arround.

Cheers
David

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: kendall
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 06:58 AM

Marmite
Manners

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 06:58 AM

" When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England " Hilaire Belloc.


eric

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:08 AM

Philip Larkin
Jake Thackray
world cup winning team 1966
Judi Dench
Humphrey Lyttleton
Mornington Crescent
Tony Hancock

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: kendall
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:09 AM

Guest 5:25 am, was that really called for?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:23 AM

not retaliating....tell that to the folk of Dresden!
cobblers...you don't see a lot of those little cobblers shops that had that cobbler sort of smell inside. as we all stopped wearing those sort of shoes and started wearing trainers..............I don't suppose we revered cobblers as much as all that. otherwise they'd still be there.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:31 AM

A tendency to rather enjoy it when things go wrong. I mean the way people on trains seem to get much more cheerful when there's been a breakdown. There should be a word for that but I can't think of it.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:36 AM

Chicken Tikka Massala !

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Rasener
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:36 AM

My wife who is Dutch came up with the following

Carpets in the toilets and kitchens. (Yuk)

Peas with every meal (very unimaginative)

Poor standard of hygiene in pub toilets.

Carpets in Pubs for everybody to spill their drinks over and drop their fags on. Yuk

Having said all that, she likes England very much. :-)

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:49 AM

sangfroid

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:52 AM

Guest 5:25 a. m. evidently himself a member of an iconic species
i.e. Iobbus anglicae, the English Yobbo.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:55 AM

English Muffins?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Rasener
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 08:03 AM

Muffin the mule!!!!

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 08:14 AM

the Times crossword
mild ale
strawberries and cream
the metaphysical poets
ham and pease pudden stotty cakes

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST,Mingulay at work
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 08:17 AM

Ah! weelittledrummer, what memories you bring back to me. I used to be a cobbler (as I was born in Northamptonshire I always will be) and still love the smell of leather and wax but, funnily enough, not the sinus clearing effect of hot, horse piddle soaked jodphur boots.

The other thing I miss is a proper hardware shop that smells of more than plastic shrink wrap. That sells galvanised buckets and nails by the pound and not the metric dozen.

Fish and chips (cooked in dripping not oil)
Showers
Extended showers
Light rain
Heavy rain
Pissing down for a week type rain

I can almost hear Julie Andrews...... "...a few of my favourite things".

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 09:14 AM

The unstoppable destruction, degradation and over-development of English landscapes and townscapes?

A land firmly in the grip of property developers?

Knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing?

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST,MikeofNorthumbria (off base)
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 10:05 AM

Toasted crumpets smothered in butter and marmalade, and washed down with Earl Grey tea. The perfect way to start a lazy Saturday morning.

And what would Saturday nights be without Greene King's Abbot, Shepherd Neame's Spitfire, Fuller's London Pride, Hook Norton's Old Hookey, Timothy Taylor's Ram Tam, Jenning's Sneck Lifter..etc, etc ...?

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 10:33 AM

The Oxford & Cambridge Boatrace-Used to row meself once.
Watching England getting trounced by Oz in the Test Series.
Watercress sandwiches.
Cheese & Onion crisps.
String vests.
Bowler Hats.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Stu
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 10:47 AM

Toast and Dripping
Inferiority complex about our fellow Island nations
Birmingham
1000 years under the Norman Yoke
Peter Crouch
Hathersage Blue Stilton
JRR Tolkien
Glastonbury Tor
Richard Thompson

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Stu
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 10:49 AM

And don't forget our dinosaurian heritage (These from the Isle of Wight alone)

Polacanthus foxii
Neovenator Salierii
Hypsilophodon foxii
Eotyrannus lengi

etc etc

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: GUEST,Gadaffi
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 11:41 AM

One cannot improve upon the litany inherent in Ian Diry's lyric for his song 'England's Glory' herewith cited:


There are jewels in the crown of England's glory
And every jewel shines a thousand ways

Frankie Howerd, Nol Coward and garden gnomes
Frankie Vaughan, Kenneth Horne, Sherlock Holmes
Monty, Biggles and Old King Cole
In the pink or on the dole
Oliver Twist and Long John Silver
Captain Cook and Nelly Dean
Enid Blyton, Gilbert Harding
Malcolm Sargeant, Graham Greene (Graham Greene)

All the jewels in the crown of England's glory
Too numerous to mention, but a few
And every one could tell a different story
And show old England's glory something new

Nice bit of kipper and Jack the Ripper and Upton Park
Gracie, Cilla, Maxy Miller, Petula Clark
Winkles, Woodbines, Walnut Whips
Vera Lynn and Stafford Cripps
Lady Chatterley, Muffin the Mule
Winston Churchill, Robin Hood
Beatrix Potter, Baden-Powell
Beecham's powders, Yorkshire pud (Yorkshire pud)

With Billy Bunter, Jane Austen
Reg Hampton, George Formby
Billy Fury, Little Titch
Uncle Mac, Mr. Pastry and all
Uncle mac, Mr. Patry and all

allright england?
gwan england
oh england

All the jewels in the crown of England's glory
Too numerous to mention, but a few
And every one could tell a different story
And show old England's glory something new

Somerset Maugham, Top Of The Form with the Boys' Brigade
Mortimer Wheeler, Christine Keeler and the Board of Trade
Henry Cooper, wakey wakey, England's labour
Standard Vanguard, spotted dick, England's workers

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 12:58 PM

First class Folk music writers and performers! Best and most regular Folk clubs.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 02:00 PM

Yorktown...wait, that was in the colonies.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 02:15 PM

Someone got the weather right, but nobody has mentioned the good old English Brolly (Statesiders, that's umbrella).

Black jackets with pinstripe trousers.

A talent for understatement, and a certain disdain for blowing ones own trumpet. (e.g. "It's nothing really, only a flesh wound, and they can actually re-attach legs these days".)

Don T.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:22 PM

Earl Grey Tea? Surely not. Leave that to Captain Picard.

Real Tea, that's another thing. Especially in a crisis, when life gets too fraught for substitutes such as coffee.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Bert
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:38 PM

Guest is forgetting that the English consider that everything British is THEIRS!

Subject: Lyr Add - Captains and the Kings
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 03:45 PM

Here are Brendan Behan's thoughts on the subject (from his play The Hostage):

I remember in September, when the final stumps were drawn,
And the shouts of crowds now silent when the boys to tea had gone.
Let us, oh Lord above us, remember simple things,
When all are dead who love us, Oh the Captains and the Kings,
When all are dead who love us, Oh the Captains and the Kings.

We have many goods for export, Christian ethics and old port
But our greatest boast is that the Anglo-Saxon is a sport
When the darts game is finished, and the boys their game of rings
And the drafts and chestful inquests of the captains and the kings
And the drafts and chestful inquests of the captains and the kings

Far away in dear old Cyprus, or in Kenya's dusty land,
Where all bear the White Man's Burden in many a strange land.
As we look across our shoulder, in West Belfast the school bell rings,
And we sigh for dear old England, and the Captains and the Kings.
And we sigh for dear old England, and the Captains and the Kings.

In our dreams we see old Harrow, and we hear the crow's load caw
At the flower show our big marrow takes the price from Evelyn Waugh
Cups of tea and some dry Sherry, vintage cars, these simple things
So let`s drink up and be marry, for the Captains and the Kings
So let`s drink up and be marry, for the Captains and the Kings

As I wandered in a nightmare all around Great Windsor Park,
Now what did you think I found there as I wandered in the dark?
It was an apple half-bitten, and sweetest of all things,
Five baby teeth had written of the Captains and the Kings.
Five baby teeth had written of the Captains and the Kings.

By the moon that shines above us in the misty morning night
Let us cease to run ourselves down and praise God that we are white
And better still are English, tea and toast and muffin rings
And old ladies with stern faces and the captains and the kings
And old ladies with stern faces and the captains and the kings.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 12:24 AM

The word "bloody" used in swearing/slang.

Subject: RE: Icons of Englishness?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 01:20 AM

Dad in his jacket and tie with a knotted handkerchief on his head and his trouser legs rolled up to the knees, a cigarette dangling from his lips going in for his yearly paddle on the beach at Butlins.

Seamus