Your West Midlands Questions answered

All week you have been using Your Questions to tell us what you want to know about the West Midlands.

You wondered if the traditional Staffordshire oatcake was available further afield than its home county.

Your questions around the meaning of English phrases inspired us to create a quiz which has been attempted more than 1.2m times so far.

We were asked if Rugby ever had a castle and moat. Here are some answers to the things you wanted to know.

English phrases: Test your knowledge

There are many peculiar English phrases whose origins and meaning can appear obscure. For instance, where does "dead as a doornail" come from? When might one say: "I'll go to the foot of our stairs?"

A recent BBC News article unearthing the stories behind some phrases drew a huge response from readers, who sent in examples of their own.

But how much do you know about the English language and its sayings? Test your knowledge here.

Do you know which phrase is said to originate from a maid who killed two servants in "bizarre circumstances"?

How widely are Staffordshire oatcakes available?

Well firstly, for those not familiar, we are talking about a type of savoury pancake made from oatmeal, flour and yeast which is synonymous with its local area.

BBC News spoke to three local producers, Staffordshire Oatcakes, Povey Oatcakes and High Lane Oatcakes who said they regularly send them across England and Wales.

Oatcakes: A Staffordshire delicacy

They also said they sent to parts of Scotland too, but only Povey Oatcakes said they send them overseas, adding that it can cost quite a bit but they've sent them to France, Germany, the US and Australia in the past.

But High Lane Oatcakes said that, while they don't ship oatcakes overseas, they have had people buy them and then send to relatives and friends in other parts of the world.

Did Rugby have a castle and moat?

Reg Jackson said he was told as a child that Rugby had a castle with a moat in Regent Place and could we find out more.

According to the council's Conservation Area assessment, there is documentary evidence of a possible medieval castle at Regent Place.

It says the earthwork of a moat was recorded here in the late 19th Century.

The local history group records that Regent Place was known as Moat Street until being renamed in 1925.

Is legendary Lonnie still alive?

Lonnie Cooke, who started gigging back in 1956, has been called Stoke-on-Trent's longest-living rocker.

As the nickname suggests, he's regarded as a legend in the city and, we can confirm, he is alive and kicking.

Lonnie Cooke said he was still gigging "enough to stop me rusting"

We gave him a call and he said he's still out gigging, including performing at this year's Newcastle Jazz and Blues Festival and he switched on Stoke's Christmas lights a couple of weeks back.

In his own words "still enough to stop me rusting".

Did the University of Birmingham convert its coal mines into a bomb shelter?

We shed some light on Zeb Mohammed's question last week when we talked to Luke Harrison at the university.

"There are about a mile of phoney coalmine snakes beneath campus. It was built in 1905 to give mining students experience of working underground," he said.

Since then we have some more information from the Special Collections team at the university which has been going through the Air Raid Precautions Committee minutes.

The University of Birmingham's Aston Webb building was converted into a field hospital in World War One, but did the university use coal mines as bomb shelters two decades later?

On 28 October 1938, Professor Moss submitted a scheme for adapting a model mine for about 800 people.

By 10 March 1939, the chairman reported the alterations to the model mine were almost complete.

So it's true they were converted into bombs shelters but we don't know if they were ever used during an air raid.