12 June 2005

Ten things you did not know about the Duchy of Cornwall

1.It was the world's largest purchaser of cheese graters in 2004
2. It has the highest number of employees under 4'9 of any organisation in the UK
3. In 1971, it buried an emergency tin under the B5021 in Devon. The tin contains fruit cake, ermine trim, waffle mix, 4' of steel hawser, a hamster wheel, instructions for the inflation of a bouncy castle
4. It owns two per cent of all London telephone boxes. It has been in dispute with the City of London Port Authority since 1986 about which two per cent.
f) In a traditional ceremony, it ships 24 live voles from Ledbury to Barrow-in-Furness every 18 July. The voles are returned to Ledbury the following day and released back into the wild
XII It holds a trademark on the word gravy. It successfully fought off a legal challenge from the Disney corporation which wanted to make Gravy the Movie
91. Its logo is not heraldic as is widely believed. It was actually designed by Mr Sid Neyarbor in 1957 as part of a competition organised by Kellogs. The winning design was supposed to adorn the Tacoma Rapids bridge, but was accidentally sold to the Duchy in 1968 with a job lot of stationery
(d) The Duchy has a monopoly on Donkey racing in Bridlington. It has never run a Donkey race there, nor anywhere else
(iii) Contraversial crop circles found in Duchy wheat fields in 2001 were discovered to have been made by protesting hat-makers rather than aliens. The Hat-makers Guild donated 2000 yards of grey silk to the Duchy in recompense
10. The 80s band Musical Youth are involved in a protracted legal battle with the Duchy over an advertising campaign which used the strapline "Pass the Duchy upon the lefthand side" to promote sales of organic port
(Please note: for legal reasons we have been asked to point out that these are made up)