IV.

Education and Culture

University College Worcester (UCW, founded 1946) was originally a teacher-training institution, but now offers higher education courses in a wide range of disciplines. Notable public schools in the county include the Royal Grammar School (founded 1291) and the King’s School (1541), both in Worcester, and Malvern College for Boys (1862), in Great Malvern.

The author of Hudibras, Samuel Butler, was born in Strensham in 1612. Sir Rowland Hill, who in 1840 began the “Penny Post”, was a native of Kidderminster, where he was born in 1795. Alfred Edward Housman, the poet, was born in Bromsgrove, and much of his poetry is set against the Worcestershire and Shropshire countryside, and he is very much associated with Bredon Hill, south-west of Evesham; A Shropshire Lad is his best-known collection of verse. The Malvern Hills formed an almost continuous background to the life of Sir Edward Elgar, the composer, who was born in Lower Broadheath, and is buried in Little Malvern. The Malvern Festival, which celebrates the works of Elgar and the playwright George Bernard Shaw, takes place annually.

Worcestershire County Cricket Club plays its home games at New Road in Worcester. Kidderminster Harriers FC, based at the Aggborough Stadium, is the county’s only professional football club.