Worcestershire

Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Geography
Status	Ceremonial & Non-metropolitan county
Origin	Historic
Region	West Midlands
Area; - Total; - Admin. council	Ranked 34th; 1,741 km² (672 sq mi); Ranked 29th
Admin HQ	Worcester
ISO 3166-2	GB-WOR
ONS code	47
NUTS 3	UKG12
Demography
Population; - Total (2007 est.); - Density; - Admin. council	Ranked 38th; 555,600; 319/km² (826/sq mi); Ranked 21st
Ethnicity	97.5% White; 1.1% S.Asian
Politics
	; Worcestershire County Council; http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Michael Foster (L); Julie Kirkbride (C); Peter Luff (C); Jacqui Smith (L); Michael Spicer (C); Richard Taylor; Bill Wiggin (C);
Districts
	Worcester; Malvern Hills; Wyre Forest; Bromsgrove; Redditch; Wychavon;

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For the condiment, see Worcestershire sauce.

Worcestershire (pronounced /ˈwʊ.stər.ʃər/ ( listen) (WOOS-tər-shər) or pronounced /ˈwʊ.stərˌʃiːr/ (WOOS-tər-sheer); abbreviated Worcs) is a county located in the West Midlands region of central England. From 1974 to 1998 it was administered as part of Hereford and Worcester.

The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire. To the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills, by which is located the spa town of Malvern. The western side of the hills is in the county of Herefordshire. The southern part of the county is bordered by Gloucestershire and the northern edge of the Cotswolds, and to the east is Warwickshire. The two major rivers flowing through the county are the Severn and the Avon.

Other than the city of Worcester, there are several other small to medium sized towns such as Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Malvern, Pershore, Evesham and Redditch. The northern part of the county includes the beginnings of the vast urban sprawl of the Midlands agglomeration, while the south of the county is still largely rural.

[edit] Language

There are many accents and dialects within Worcestershire. The county's northern commuter towns such as Redditch and Kidderminster have had an influx of the Black Country accent which has affected the accents of Bromsgrove and parts of Redditch and formed a new accent unique to those towns. The rest of the county has retained the distinctive tones of the West Country accent, typified and made famous by the The Archers, the world's longest running radio soap, set in a fictional county situated somewhere between the (in reality, bordering) counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

[edit] History

Main articles: History of Worcestershire and Civil War in Worcestershire

Worcestershire was the heartland of the early English kingdom of the Hwicce. Absorbed by the Kingdom of Mercia, and then by the unified Kingdom of England, it was an separate ealdormanship briefly in the 10th century before forming part of the Earldom of Mercia in the 11th. In the years leading up to the Norman conquest, the Church (the cathedral, Evesham Abbey, and other houses) dominated more and more of the county. The last known Anglo-Saxon sheriff of the county was Cyneweard of Laughern, and the first Norman sheriff was Urse d'Abetot. The latter built the castle of Worcester and seized much church land. Worcestershire was the site of the Battle of Evesham in which Simon de Montfort was killed (4 August, 1265), and later, in the English Civil War, the Battle of Worcester (1651).

In the nineteenth century, Worcester was a centre for the manufacture of gloves; the town of Kidderminster was a centre for carpet manufacture, and Redditch specialised in the manufacture of needles, springs and hooks. Droitwich Spa, being situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of salt production from Roman times, one of the principal Roman roads running through the town. These old industries have since declined, to be replaced by other, more varied light industry. The county is also home to the world's oldest continually published newspaper, the Berrow's Journal (established 1690). Malvern was one of the centres of the rise in water-cure establishments in this country, as Malvern water was believed to contain "nothing at all", i.e. to be very pure. ^[1]

[edit] Local government

Worcestershire's boundaries have been fluid for over a hundred years since the abolition of the form of local administration known as the Hundreds in 1889, but the continual expansion of Birmingham and the Black Country during and after the Industrial Revolution altered the county map considerably.

[edit] 1884 - 1911

Worcestershire County Council came into existence following the Local Government Act 1888 and covered the historic traditional county, except for two designated county boroughs at Dudley and Worcester. The county also had many exclaves and enclaves, which were areas of land cut off from the main geographical area of Worcestershire and completely surrounded by the adjoining counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire. The most noticeable were Dudley and the area around Shipston-on-Stour. In return, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire had their own exclaves within Worcestershire. These were found at Clent, Tardebigge and Halesowen/Oldbury (or the Halesowen Parish area) respectively and were transferred to or rejoined Worcestershire in October 1844 following the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844. This Act of Parliament was designed to eradicate the issue of 'islands' or 'exclaves', however Shipston-on-Stour remained associated with Worcestershire until April 1931 and likewise Dudley until 1966. The southern boundary of the county was also confusing, with parish boundaries penetrating deep into Gloucestershire and vice-versa. This was also eventually resolved following the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.

Birmingham's continuous expansion has been a large contributory factor to Worcestershire's fluid boundary changes and associated housing issues. In November 1909, Quinton Urban District was ceded to Birmingham and was followed by Yardley, Northfield and Kings Heath in November 1911. As a consequence of the transfer to Birmingham, these areas were no longer part of Worcestershire and became associated with Warwickshire. Dudley's historical status within the Diocese of Worcester and through its aristocratic links ensured that the island was governed on a largely autonomous basis. Worcester was also self-governing and was known as The City and County of Worcester.

[edit] 1966 - 1974

During the Local Government reorganisation of April 1966, Dudley expanded beyond its historical boundaries and took in Sedgley, Brierley Hill, Coseley and part of Amblecote. The Local Government Act redefined its status and Dudley County Borough became part of Staffordshire, the county which all of these 'new' areas had been part of. In return, Worcestershire gained a new county borough by the name of "Warley", which was centred around Oldbury and its neighbouring Staffordshire authorities. This body was an amalgamation of Oldbury and Rowley Regis Urban District's, along with the County Borough of Smethwick and parts of Tipton. The Oakham area of Dudley, which was already in Worcestershire was transferred to Warley.

Warley County Borough became part of Worcestershire and remained until abolition in April 1974, although it was never administrated by Worcestershire County Council.

During these reorganisations of the 1960s, the County Council's expansion was limited to Stourbridge taking in the majority of Amblecote Urban District from Staffordshire and the designation of Redditch in 1964 as a New Town. This in turn saw expansion into the area in and around the villages of Ipsley and Matchborough in Warwickshire. The Redditch New Town designation coincided with a considerable programme of social and private house building in Droitwich, Worcester, Bromsgrove, Kidderminster and along the Birmingham boundary at Frankley, Rubery and Rednal. Frankley was transferred from Bromsgrove to Birmingham control in April 1995.

[edit] 1974 - present

From 1974, the central and southern part of the county was amalgamated with Herefordshire and Worcester County Borough to form a single non-metropolitan county of Hereford and Worcester. The County Boroughs of Dudley and Warley along with Stourbridge and Halesowen were incorporated into the new West Midlands Metropolitan county. The West Midlands County Council existed for only a short period before abolition in April 1986 by the Government, though legally exists to this day as an administrative county and ceremonial county.

In the 1990s UK local government reform, the decision was taken to abolish Hereford and Worcester, with the new non-metropolitan county or shire county of Worcestershire regaining its historic border with Herefordshire.

The new county still excluded towns such as Stourbridge, Halesowen, Dudley and Oldbury, due to the reorganisation's remit of dealing with only non-metropolitan counties in England. The new County of Worcestershire came into existence on 1 April 1998 as an administrative county and ceremonial county, although some cross-boundary organisations and resources are shared with the Herefordshire unitary authority, these include waste management and the youth offending service.

The post-April 1974 Hereford & Worcester districts of Redditch, Worcester, Bromsgrove, Wychavon and Wyre Forest were retained with little or no change. However the Leominster and Malvern Hills districts crossed over the historic border, so a new Malvern Hills district was constituted which straddled the Pre-April 1974 county boundary to the west, south west and north west.

Worcestershire Youth Parliament members are Alice Bond, Ryan Nokes and Peter Bullock. A total of 8,598 votes were cast in polling stations right across Worcestershire in February 2008.

Broadway Tower, one of several Worcestershire follies

[edit] Worcestershire County Council Election Results

Year	Conservative Party	Liberal Democrats	Labour Party	Liberal Party	Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern	Independent	Wythall Residents
2005	30	8	15	2	1	1	0
2009	42	8	3	1	2	0	1

[edit] Physical geography

Worcestershire is a fairly rural county. The Malvern Hills, which run from the south of the county into Herefordshire, are made up mainly of volcanic igneous rock and metamorphic rock, some of which date from before 1200 million years ago. For more on the geology of the Malvern Hills, see the External links.

[edit] Culture, media and sport

Football is the most popular sport in the county, and by far the largest and most successful football club in the county is Kidderminster Harriers F.C.. In 2000 they became the first Worcestershire club to compete in The Football League. The county is also represented by Worcester City of the Blue Square Premier South & Bromsgrove Rovers of the Southern Football League.

The county is home to the Worcestershire County Cricket Club, traditionally first stop on for the touring national side's schedule in England. The Club's players have included Tom Graveney, Ian Botham, Glenn McGrath, Graeme Hick, Kapil Dev, Vikram Solanki, Don Kenyon and Basil D'Oliveira. Worcester Rugby Football Club, the Worcester Warriors, whose ground is at Sixways, Worcester, were promoted to the Guinness Premiership in 2004.

The village of Broadheath, about 6 miles (10 km) North-West of the city of Worcester, is the birthplace of the composer Edward Elgar.

Malvern is the home of the Malvern Fringe Festival, one of the oldest festivals of its kind in the world ^[2]

The film, Shrek the Third, mentioned Worcestershire as an academy, resembling an American High School.

[edit] Radio in Worcestershire

BBC Hereford & Worcester, Radio Wyvern and Sunshine Radio broadcast to both Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The Wyre broadcasts across the north of Worcestershire. Youthcomm Radio, a Community radio station, broadcasts to Worcester city area. Birmingham-based radio stations such as BBC Radio WM and BRMB consider the bordering areas of Worcestershire part of their broadcast area.

In 2007 the Office of Communications (Ofcom) awarded a DAB Digital Radio multiplex licence for Herefordshire & Worcestershire to MuxCo Ltd. who aim to provide several new stations in 2009, while also providing a digital platform for Wyvern FM, Sunshine Radio and BBC Hereford & Worcester and area extensions to United Christian Broadcasters and the Highways Agency. In 2008, CE Birmingham, who own and operate the Birmingham local DAB multiplex licencees improved coverage of DAB Digital Radio across other parts of the county to include Worcester and Malvern. Services that can be heard reasonably across much of Worcestershire are: BRMB, Chill, Gold (Birmingham), Magic Radio, Sunrise Radio, Traffic Radio (Midlands), BBC Radio WM, Xfm (Midlands) and Radio XL.

[edit] Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Worcestershire at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added^[3]	Agriculture^[4]	Industry^[5]	Services^[6]
1995	5,047	225	1,623	3,200
2000	6,679	159	2,002	4,518
2003	7,514	182	1,952	5,380

[edit] Industry and Agriculture

A large area of the county used to be traditionally devoted to fruit farming and the cultivation of hops; this has decreased considerably since World War II, though in the southern area of the county, around the Vale of Evesham, there are still sufficient fruit orchards that the British Automobile Association signposts a route (the "Blossom Trail") where the orchards can be seen in blossom in spring. Worcester City's coat of arms includes a depiction of three black pears, representing a now rare local pear variety, the Worcester Black Pear. The county's coat of arms follows this theme, having a pear tree with black pears. The apple variety known as Worcester Pearmain originates from Worcestershire, and the Pershore plum comes from the small Worcestershire town of that name, and is widely grown in that area. John Drinkwater, the poet, wrote

Who travels Worcester county takes any road that comes when April tosses bounty to the cherries and the plums

Worcestershire is also famous for a number of its non-agricultural products. The city of Worcester and the surrounding county are best known for Worcestershire sauce such as that made by Lea and Perrins and for its porcelain works. Worcestershire sauce (also known as Worcester sauce) is a savoury sauce made with vinegar, anchovies, molasses, tamarinds, onions and spices, used in flavouring various foods and the Bloody Mary drink which is drunk worldwide. The town of Malvern is the home of the Morgan traditional sports car. The painting, A Worcestershire Cottage by Arthur Claude Strachan is also of general renown.

[edit] Education

Worcestershire has a comprehensive school system with sixteen independent schools including the RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School, The King's School, Worcester, Malvern St James' and Malvern College. State schools in Worcester and the Wyre Forest are two-tier primary schools and secondary schools whilst Redditch and Bromsgrove have a three-tier system of first, middle and high schools. Sixth-form provision in the county is quite generous.

[edit] Towns and villages

The county town and only city is Worcester. The other major settlements, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove and Redditch are satellite towns of Birmingham. There are also several market towns: Malvern, Bewdley, Evesham, Droitwich Spa, Pershore, and Tenbury Wells.

For a full list of settlements, see list of places in Worcestershire.

[edit] Places of interest

Key
	Abbey/Priory/Cathedral
	Accessible open space
	Amusement/Theme Park
	Castle
	Country Park
	English Heritage
	Forestry Commission
	Heritage railway
	Historic House
	Museum (free/not free)
	National Trust
	Zoo