Worcester Local History

WORCESTER is a quintessentially English city with a colourful history. It is now a popular shopping destination with a thriving tourism industry and is an attractive location for modern business.

Heritage and tradition link arms with the arts and all the latest High Street names in new retail arcades which vie for your attention with inviting bars and restaurants offering food from all corners of the globe.

Home of the magnificent Worcester Cathedral, the world-famous Royal Worcester Porcelain and Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, the Faithful City is also close to the birthplace of Sir Edward Elgar, England’s greatest composer.

Sports fans can choose between football, horse racing, first class cricket, rowing or Premiership rugby, while lovers of the arts will delight in the theatre, museums and exhibitions.

Lying on the banks of the Severn, the UK's longest river, Worcester is easily accessible from the M5 motorway and rail networks.

A wide range of accommodation means you can bed down in a city-centre hotel, savour the hospitality of a friendly guest house, or awake to the sound of the birds in a nearby campsite.

Worcester's coat of arms bears three black pears following the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to the city in 1575.

Tradition has it the Queen set eyes on a Black Pear tree laden with fruit and was so impressed that she asked for its image to be added to the coat of arms.

Worcester is known as the Faithful City as its motto is the Latin words Civitas In Bello Et Pace Fidelis meaning 'The City faithful in war and in peace'. This is a reference to its loyalty to the Stuart cause during the English Civil War, which both started and ended in the city in the 17th century.

The 18th century heralded the start of the Three Choirs Festival - a world famous cultural event still held in Worcester every three years and due to return to the city in 2005.

The completion of the Worcester to Birmingham Canal in 1815 linked the industrial Midlands to the Severn Valley and by 1825 some 30,000 people were employed in glove manufacture in Worcester. The landmark St Andrew's Spire on Deansway is nicknamed the glover's needle in honour of this traditional trade.

Nowadays, Worcester's economy is richly diversified and has seen a continued expansion with the development of high quality business parks due to its central position in the country and its location on the motorway network.

The city's importance as a popular shopping centre and its status as the county town and administrative centre for Worcestershire has seen a huge growth in the service sector where more than 78 per cent of its employment is now based.

Important national and well known companies based in Worcester include Worcester Heat Systems, Cosworth Technology, Yamazaki Machinery Tools and packaging company CarnaudMetal Box.

The annual Christmas Fayre is the Midland's most prestigious Victorian-themed street market and attracts more than 100,000 visitors from all over the UK over four festive days.

Worcester's riverside location and colourful history attracts more than 2.5 million visitors every year who in turn add more than £80 million to the city's economy.

The new PFI-funded £96 million Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Ronkswood was opened in 2001 putting the city at the forefront of the latest available NHS services.

Worcester boasts many of the UK's leading independent schools including the King's School, Royal Grammar School and the Alice Ottley School. It became a university city in 2005 - another key goal achieved for the future development of the city as a whole.

The University of Worcester, which has 7,000 students and 500 staff, has recently bought the old hospital site at Castle Street for its second campus.

The planned £100 million development of this site will create an extra 5,000 student places in the area by 2012.