By George! Other English ideas that changed world
Home of the pencil: Cumbria. Graphite was discovered in the 16th century. Derwent Pencil Museum now gets over 80,000 visitors a year.
First vaccine: Gloucestershire. West Country doctor Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine in 1796.
First iron framed building: Shrewsbury. Although most people believe the forerunner of the modern skyscraper was invented in New York, it was actually in Shropshire.
Splitting the atom: Manchester. Nobel Prize winning New Zealander Ernest Rutherford made one of the great scientific discoveries while at the University of Manchester.