THAT OLD CHESTNUT
1.Inside the prickly green shells lies the hard, shiny brown fruits we know as conkers. A game involving drilling a hole through them, threading a piece of string then hitting another conker until it breaks was a popular playground pastime until health and safety fears saw it banned in many places.
2.The first game was recorded in 1848 on the Isle of Wight. Before they were brought to the UK from the Balkans at the end of the 16th century, the game was played with snail shells.
3.Strictly star Matt Goss fumed on Bros documentary After The Screaming Stops: “How ridiculous it is that you can’t play conkers, and if you do, you have got to wear goggles. That is the biggest problem. Can’t play conkers in England.”
4.The name conker is said to have originated from the French word cogner, which means “to hit”.
5.Norwich City Council once came under fire for wanting to cut down horse chestnut trees because conkers might fall on people’s heads.
6.Eaten by cattle, deer and horses, conkers were given to horses originally as a cough medicine and to give them a shiny coat.
7.While often thought to be a remedy to keep spiders out of a home, having a collection of conkers for the purpose has been dismissed as an old wives’ tale.
8.Children were paid to collect conkers during WW1 by the government so acetone could be distilled from them to help make the explosive cordite.
9.The World Conker Championships were first held in Northamptonshire in 1965 and were the brainchild of four local fishermen. The 2017 winner John Riley was the oldest champ at the age of 85.
10.The largest horse chestnut tree can be found at the National Trust’s Hughenden Estate in Buckinghamshire – the former home of PM Benjamin Disraeli – and has a girth of 24ft.
11.A chemical named triterpenoids can be found in conkers, which moths hate so they’re recommended to keep the insects away from clothes. Hide some in your wardrobe or drawers.
12.Desperate to fade a bruise? Conkers contain an anti-inflammatory called aescin which can do the trick and also ease sprains.
13.In Victorian times it was popular to make flour from conkers but they’re poisonous for human consumption because of aesculin contained inside them so that is no longer recommended.
14. Vikings crushed up conkers like bars of soap and they’re on the rise again now as an eco-friendly way to wash clothes due to the saponin inside conkers, which is also found in soap nuts.
15.Popular parks where conkers can be found in abundance in the UK include Avenham Park, Preston, Thompson Park, Burnley and Brungerley Park, Clitheroe.