*History Street Challenge Rules*

This is a challenge for two or three people to enjoy. In undertaking a history street challenge competitors can either start and finish in the same location or arrange to start and end at different locations. 

The idea is to search the streets at your chosen town or city location for dates, hidden in plain site, relating to an object/building or from a dated event from history from that location. These dates can either be written on buildings, on foundation plaques, blue plaques, fountains, tops of drain pipes, lamp posts, or other items of street furniture. Statues also contain dates on their attached plaques, but it’s the date of the installation and not the date of the person in the statue that is counted. If the blue plaque states a person lived there, then the early date is used. If the exact date can’t be determined and there is only a date range; then it’s the later date and not the earlier one which is used. Remember to photograph each date to confirm it and to ensure that the date was within the rules. Dates that just give a century (e.g. 17th century) don’t count as they are not specific. NOTE: Generic dates (e.g.. Boots established 1864, WHSmith 1762, Sainsburys 1869, Green King pub sign 1799) do not count as they are generic and not specific to that location.

Note: castles, castle grounds, medieval churches, ancient monuments or walls, cemeteries and museum items shouldn’t be included, as this would just be too easy to find that early date. Memorial plaques often found on benches are also not counted out of respect to the decesed person. Be sure to point out other interesting features around the streets including gold postal boxes, decorative architecture or something else to keep viewers interested during the challenge. 

Local rules can be applied; whereupon a known local landmarks or historic building can also be excluded or perhaps these could be used as start/end locations. A coin toss or previous winner can decide upon who has first choice as to which direction they go. If you know that other people have visited a certain town or city, perhaps you have seen their video, then try and start/end in different places to cover new ground and hopefully discover new dates hidden in our streets. 

30 minutes is a reasonable time to cover smaller areas, but times can be varied if necessary, but note that shorter times could add more drama to the challenge! At the end of the challenge, the contestants discuss the number of dates found to ascertain who has discovered the oldest date without revealing what was found so as not to spoil the video for the viewer. NOTE: The welcome section at the begining and the end sequence where the results are given don’t count as part of the 30 minute challenge. It’s also OK to do some added photography for the video after the challenge has ended if need be.

There must be something to play for, so the loser buys lunch, a round of drinks or something else to give the challenge an extra element of fun. Quite often both competitors find the same date, so it’s OK to have a draw. Perhaps the higher number of dates found could decide the winner, as a way of avoiding a draw. However a draw could add a little extra drama and determination on the next challenge with the same challenger.

This would be agreed in advance. Please don’t cheat and use Google Earth to scout the location beforehand and enjoy your challenge.