Worcestershire

Worcestershire (pronounced ; abbreviated Worcs) is a county located in the of central. From 1974 to 1998 it was administered as part of.

The county borders, , , , , and. To the west, the county is bordered by the, by which is located the spa town of. The western side of the hills is in the county of. The southern part of the county is bordered by and the northern edge of the, and to the east is. The two major rivers flowing through the county are the and the.

Other than the city of, there are several other small to medium sized towns such as , , , , and. In the southern part of the county, the area is still largely rural.

There are many accents and dialects in Worcestershire. The counties' northern s such as Redditch and Kidderminster have adopted the, whereas the rest of the county has retained the distinctive accent.

History
Main article: .

Worcestershire was the site of the in which  was killed (4th August, 1265), and later, in the, the  (1651).

In the, Worcester was a centre for the manufacture of gloves; the town of was a centre for carpet manufacture, and  specialised in the manufacture of needles, springs and hooks. , being situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of salt production from 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  (established 1690). was one of the centres of the rise in water-cure establishments in this country, as was believed to contain "nothing at all", i.e. to be very pure.

Local government
Worcestershire's boundaries have been fluid for over a hundred years since the abolition of the form of administration known as the, though the continual expansion of and the  considerably altered the map. Worcestershire County Council came into existence in 1889 and covered the whole of the traditional county, except two s - and. The county also had many s, completely surrounded by the adjoining counties of, , , and. The most noticeable were and the area around. In return, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and had islands within Worcestershire. These were found at, and / respectively, though the latter originally was outside Worcestershire for nine-hundred years. The southern boundary of the county was especially confusing, with parish boundaries penetrating deep into and vice-versa.

's historical status within the and through its aristocracy links ensured to a certain extent that the island was self-governing. was also self-governing and was known as The City and County of Worcester. During the Local Government reorganisation of 1966, Dudley expanded beyond its historical boundaries and took in, , and parts of , but lost its Worcestershire status and became associated with. Other areas of Worcestershire including, and  became part of the county borough of  (and therefore were considered part of the geographical county of Warwickshire), the surrounding islands to their respective counties,  to   and , ,  and  Parishes to. The new county borough of Warley was associated with Worcestershire. In return, Worcestershire's expansion was limited to, taking in the majority of Urban District, and the designation of  in 1964 as a  which saw expansion into  in.

From 1974 to 1998, the middle and southern part of county was combined with and   to form a single non-metropolitan county of ; the County Boroughs of  and  along with  and  were incorporated into the. The was in existence for only a short period before abolition in 1986. In the, the decision was taken to abolish , with the new non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire having the historic border with Herefordshire, but still excluding areas in the north in West Midlands.

The post-1974 districts of, , and  were retained with little or no change. However the and  districts straddled the historic border: a new Malvern Hills district was constituted covering the Worcestershire part of these.

See also:

Physical geography
Worcestershire is a fairly rural county. The, which run from the south of the county into Herefordshire, are made up mainly of volcanic igneous 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.

Culture,media and sport
The county is home to the, traditionally first stop on for the touring national side's schedule in England. The Club's players have included, , , , , , and. Worcester Rugby Football Club, the, whose ground is at Sixways, Worcester, were promoted to the in 2004.

The village of, about 10 km North-West of the city of Worcester, is the birthplace of the composer.

is the home of the, one of the oldest festivals of its kind in the world

By far the largest and most successful football club in the county is. In 2000 they became the first Worcestershire club to compete in the Football League.

Radio
There are three analogue radio stations which broadcast to the county as well as, these are: , and. There is also one analogue commercial radio station broadcasting primarily to, & , known as  following an extensive campaign to bring local radio to the  District. A station has been licensed within Worcestershire known as  which aims to broadcast to, the radio station is brand new and is on air no at 106.7fm under the name. In addition, there are local and regional analogue and digital radio stations broadcasting into Worcestershire from surrounding areas such as, , and.

Radio Wyvern has been broadcasting since 4th October 1982, although the name was changed slightly to following the end of simulcasting on AM and FM in 1996. Radio Wyvern commenced broadcasting on 1530 kHz AM (196 Metres Medium Wave) and 96.2 MHz FM in Worcestershire following a campaign to estabish a commercial radio station spearheaded by Severn Valley Radio. It was felt that the name was too Worcestershire-centric and was renamed Radio Wyvern after a mythical dragon or the proposed name for the short-lived County of. The name also symbolises the two major rivers which flowed through the two counties - the and the. has had a varied history, launching careers of names such as, , and  to name but a few. Through its twenty-five years, Wyvern played host to presenters such as,, and , although these names arrived at  via syndicated means. is now owned by (formerly GWR Group) and now broadcast via studios at Perdiswell. Following the end of on  and,  launched a new AM service known as , which was a more adult contemporary service concentrating on playing oldies and melodic music. was short lived when the company was bought by GWR Group. The AM service was renamed and became an oldies radio station fitting into the Classic Gold Network, until it was sold to Muff Murfin. In 2003, Classic Gold 954/1530 was renamed 'Classic Hits 954/1530' and for a short period became Adult Contemporary, this was soon changed and once again became an oldies radio station. In 2007, Laser Broadcasting acquired Classic Hits 954/1530 and fellow Murfin Media station 'Sunshine 855' from. The station was again renamed in 2007 and became Sunshine Radio, complete with daily split programming for and Worcestershire. In September 2008, is due to begin broadcasting via  across Worcestershire and.

On the 6th September 2007 - the  awarded a DAB Digital Multiplex licence for  & Worcestershire to MuxCo  Ltd. MuxCo aims to provide a number of new radio stations including, ,  and. As well as providing a digital platform for, and  and area extensions to   and the. The new multiplex aims to commence broadcasting from September 2008 utilising three transmitters; two of which are within Worcestershire at and. Although the applicant has stated that they may extend coverage at a later date via a relay at.

received two applications; MuxCo (Hereford & Worcester) and Gcap Media (owners of Wyvern FM).

Shrek 3
Worcestershire is mentioned in the film as the name of the high school Puss, Donkey and Shrek visit to find Prince Arthur. Donkey mispronounces it, and then after Shrek explains the correct pronunciation, Donkey makes a joke out of it by comparing it to Worcestershire sauce. In real world history Prince had a "Prince Arthur's Chantry" dedicated to him in.

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.

Industry and Agriculture
A large area of the county used to be traditionally devoted to fruit-growing and the cultivation of ; this has decreased considerably since, though in the southern area of the county, around the , there are still sufficient orchards that the British signposts a route (the "") where the orchards can be seen in blossom in spring. Worcester City's includes a depiction of three black pears, representing a now rare local fruit 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 plum comes from the small Worcestershire town of that name, and is widely grown in that area.

Worcestershire is also famous for a number of its non-agricultural products. The city of and the surrounding county are best known for  and for its  works. Worcestershire sauce (also known as Worcester sauce) is a savoury sauce made with vinegar,, , s, onions and spices, used in flavouring various foods and the drink which is drunk worldwide. The town of is the home of the  traditional ). The painting,  by  is also of general renown.

Education
Worcestershire has a comprehensive school system with sixteen independent schools including the The Royal Grammar School Worcester, The King's School, Worcester and Malvern College. Schools in Redditch, Kidderminster and two in Bromsgrove use the upper/middle school tertiary system, with all s having a sixth form, with sixth form provision in the county being quite generous. Just over 6300 pupils take GCSEs in the county each year. In England, the average proportion of pupils in 2006 gaining five good GCSEs (A-C) including English and Maths is 45.8%: for Worcestershire it is 43.1, which is relatively low for a rural county. A few schools in Kidderminster and Redditch produce very low results. At GCSE, the best school is the in, closely followed by the  in  and  in Redditch. The worst performing school is the Elgar Technology College in Worcester. At A level, the county is slightly under the England average, but there are some reasonably performing schools, with the best being.

GCSE results by district council (%)

 * Malvern Hills 51.7
 * Wychavon 50.5
 * Bromsgrove 48.9
 * Worcester 39.6
 * Redditch 38.1
 * Wyre Forest 34.9

Towns and villages
The and only city is. The other major settlements,, and  are satellite towns of. There are also several s:, , , , , and.

For a full list of settlements, see .

Places of interest

 * [[Image:Museum icon (red).png]]
 * and the [[Image:UKAL icon.png]]
 * - [[Image:UKAL icon.png]]
 * [[Image:HR icon.png]]
 * [[Image:AP Icon.PNG]]
 * [[Image:AP Icon.PNG]]
 * and valley [[Image:UKAL icon.png]]
 * with its unique Pump Rooms.
 * at Worcester, at  or
 * at . A burnt-out shell of a large English, famous for its gigantic fountain, now restored to working order. Currently run by . [[Image:HH icon.png]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:HH icon.png]]
 * at Redditch, the only remaining working needle mill in the world. [[Image:Museum icon (red).png]]
 * [[Image:HH icon.png]]
 * at Redditch, the only remaining working needle mill in the world. [[Image:Museum icon (red).png]]