Worcestershire

{| border=1 cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="right" width=300 |- !colspan=2 align=center bgcolor="#ff9999"|Worcestershire |- |colspan=2 align=center| |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Geography |- |width="45%"|Status:||Ceremonial counties of England & Administrative counties of England County |- |Region:||West Midlands (region) |- |Surface area:
- Total
- Admin. council||List of Ceremonial counties of England by Area
1 E9 m� square kilometre
List of Administrative shire counties of England by Area |- |Admin HQ:||Worcester |- |ISO 3166-2:GB:||GB-WOR |- |ONS coding system:||47 |- |Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 3:||UKG12 |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Demographics |- |Population:
- Total (2003 est.)
- Density
- Admin. council||List of Ceremonial counties of England by Population
549,286
316 / km²
List of Administrative shire counties of England by Population |- |Ethnicity:||97.5% White
1.1% S.Asian |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Politics |- |colspan=2 align=center|Worcestershire County Council
http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/ |- |Executive:||Conservative Party (UK) |- |colspan=2 align=center|MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005 |- |colspan=2| Michael John Foster, Julie Kirkbride, Peter Luff, Jacqui Smith, Michael Spicer, Richard Taylor (UK politician), Bill Wiggin |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Districts |- |colspan=2| #Worcester, Worcestershire #Malvern Hills (district) #Wyre Forest #Bromsgrove (district) #Redditch #Wychavon |} Worcestershire (pronounced ''whus-ter-shur'', ''whus-ter-sheer'', ''whus-ter-shyer'', or ''wUst@rS@(r)'' in New Edition OED shorthand; abbreviated Worcs) is a county, located in the West Midlands (region) of central England. ==Situation== The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands (county), Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire. To the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills AONB, by which is located the former spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire. 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 River Severn and the River Avon, Warwickshire. Other than the city of Worcester, England, and several large towns (notably Kidderminster and Bromsgrove) in the northern part of the county, the area is still largely rural. ==Local Produce== A large area of the county used to be devoted to fruit-growing and the cultivation of hop (plant); 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 orchards that the British Automobile Association signposts a route (the "Blossom Trail") where the orchards can be seen in spring. Worcester City's coat of arms 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 Pershore 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 Worcester and the surrounding county are best known for Worcestershire sauce and for its porcelain works. Worcestershire sauce (also known as ''Worcester sauce'') is a savory sauce made with vinegar, soy sauce and spices, used in flavouring various foods and the Bloody Mary (cocktail) drink which is drunk worldwide. The city of Worcester is also the birthplace of the composer Edward Elgar. The town of Malvern is the home of the Morgan (car) traditional sports car). The painting, ''A Worcestershire Cottage'' by Arthur Claude Strachan is also of general renown. ==History== ''Main article: History of Worcestershire.'' Worcestershire was the site of the Battle of Evesham in which Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester was killed (4th August, 1265), and later, in the English Civil War, the Battle of Worcester (1651). In the 19th 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 and hooks. Droitwich Spa, being situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of salt production from Roman empire 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).It is also 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. From 1974 to 1998, it was combined with Herefordshire to form a single administrative county of Hereford and Worcester; some areas now part of West Midlands metropolitan county used to be part of northern Worcestershire, such as Dudley, Halesowen, Stourbridge. Even before then, some areas, such as Yardley, West Midlands had been made part of Birmingham itself (and hence Warwickshire). The post-1998 county therefore does not correspond exactly to the pre-1974 boundaries. == Towns and villages == ''See the list of places in Worcestershire.'' == Places of interest == *Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings *Severn Valley Railway *Worcester Cathedral *Leigh Court Tithe Barn *River Teme * Brinkley Court, the fictional seat of Dahlia Travers and temporary residence of Mr. Anstruther in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse == Local groups == *West Midland Bird Club *Worcestershire Wildlife Trust == External links == *[http://www.thisisworcestershire.co.uk/ This is Worcestershire] *[http://www.berrowsjournal.co.uk/ Berrow's Journal] *[http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/ History of the Worcestershire Regiment] *[http://www.wccc.co.uk/ Worcestershire County Cricket Club] Worcestershire

Worcestershire

This Category contains articles relating to Worcestershire. Counties of England

Worcestershire

Pronunciation I have changed the phonetic pronunciation from 'wustashur' and 'wustasheer' to the examples shown, as I feel they are more clear. :Though "wusta" in the British English spoken in the county would surely rhyme with "[General] Custer" - and I've never heard that! ::Changed the phonetic spelling again and added the OED format.--User:Shastrix 22:35, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC) Not certain where to put this comment, but here seems reasonable as I'm primarily thinking of Worcestershire: there's an inconsistency with the "List of places in X" articles as to whether they refer to the ceremonial county or the modern administrative one. For example, Stourbridge is included in the list of places in Worcestershire, and Telford in the list of places in Shropshire - but Wolverhampton is not included in the list of places in Staffordshire, which historically it is part of. Which is right? User:Loganberry 00:34, 13 May 2005 (UTC) :Stourbridge shouldn't be on the list as it is now in the West Midlands (unless there is a 'places formerly within' section or something). However Telford is OK as it is still ceremonially part of Shropshire if not administratively. Wolverhampton is also part of the West Midlands. User:G-Man 19:14, 16 May 2005 (UTC) wtf is going on with the malvern (home of the morgan sports car) thing. lets be honest morgan coming from worcestershire is not first paragraph stuff.seems like advertising to me. -jg.

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

W

WA | WB | WC | WD | WE | WF | WG | WH | WI | WJ | WK | WL | WM | WN | WO | WP | WR | WS | WT | WU | WX | WY | WZ |

Words begining with Worcestershire:

Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire_and_Sherwood_Foresters
Worcestershire_Beacon
Worcestershire_Beacon.jpg
Worcestershire_CCC
Worcestershire_County_Cricket_Club
Worcestershire_County_Cricket_Club_in_2005
Worcestershire_cricketers
Worcestershire_Mid_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
Worcestershire_Mid_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
Worcestershire_Royals
Worcestershire_sauce
Worcestershire_sauce
Worcestershire_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
Worcestershire_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
Worcestershire_Wildlife_Trust