Worcestershire

Worcester Cathedral Church of St Mary has a Norman crypt, but the main building dates substantially from the early 13th century, having been rebuilt after a fire that destroyed the cathedral as it then was in 1202. The cathedral choir participates, with those of the cathedrals of Hereford and Gloucester, in the annual Three Choirs Festival, which takes place during the summer, and was first held in 1715.

Forge Mill at Redditch is the home of the National Needle Museum. The Avoncroft Museum of Buildings, just south of Bromsgrove, exhibits authentic buildings dating from the 13th century to the present. The Royal Horticultural Society has a centre in Pershore.

Archaeological evidence of ancient settlement can be seen at a number of sites throughout the county. Bronze Age cremations are known to have taken place on Worcestershire Beacon, near Great Malvern. The remains of an Iron Age fort have been found on Bredon Hill. Artefacts from the Beaker Culture, including pottery, axes, flints, and other tools, have also been unearthed at the site. An Iron Age village, with houses, enclosures, and pits was excavated at Beckford in 1979.

Worcestershire is largely rural and fruit-growing and dairy farming are among the most important agricultural sectors. The county gave its name to the Worcester Pearmain apple; a wide variety of fruit and vegetables are cultivated—in particular, Pershore is noted for its plums; and hops are also grown. The large-scale production of fruit results in a number of related industries, including cider-making and the canning of fruit. In addition to fruit-growing, market gardening is of importance in the Vale of Evesham.

There is some heavy industry at Worcester and Bromsgrove, and metal industries are carried out in Hereford and Redditch. Gloves and Royal Worcester china from Worcester, carpets from Kidderminster, and salt from Droitwich, where it has been produced for at least 1,000 years, are all old industries that have survived. Droitwich continues to attract visitors as a spa town.

The county was heavily wooded in prehistoric times, and there are comparatively few relics from that period. The Romans came to Worcester, but the first major occupants of the territory was the Anglo-Saxon Hwicca tribe, which arrived in the 6th century. By the late 7th century, Worcester had developed into an important trading post between England and Wales. The area later became part of Mercia. It was conquered by the Danes in the 9th century, and finally emerged as a separate administrative entity in about the mid-11th century, after Mercia had been regained from the Danes.

From the 8th century, the Church exercised considerable control over Worcestershire; and by the 13th century the county was largely in the hands of 13 great monasteries, which maintained their ascendancy until the reign of Henry VIII. At the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester was killed, and his forces were defeated by Prince Edward, later Edward I. In the Civil War, Worcestershire was firmly on the Royalist side, but by 1646 all resistance to the Parliamentarians was over. In 1651, the young Prince Charles, who would eventually ascend the throne as Charles II, came to the county with a Scottish army, but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester.