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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Worcester
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(84,000 in 1991)
City on the river Severn; administrative centre of Hereford and Worcester. Situated at the lowest convenient fording place of the Severn, it became a walled Anglo-Saxon town after being made a diocese in about 680. The present cathedral was begun in the late 11C, and the Norman crypt survives from that time; the rest of the building is mainly of the 14C. The oldest secular buildings in the city are three timber-frame houses of the 15C; the Greyfriars is kept as an example of domestic architecture of the period, while both the Tudor House and the Commandery (originally founded as a hospice for travellers in the 11C) are now museums of local history.
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The Guildhall, completed in 1721, is by Thomas White, a local pupil of *Wren. Wool was the source of Worcester's medieval wealth and glove-making became a later specialization (a tall spire, all that remains of St Andrew's church, is known locally as the Glover's Needle). But the production of *Worcester porcelain has been the city's best-known activity since 1751; the Royal Porcelain Works have occupied their present site in Severn Street since 1840. Worcester is one of the cities of the *Three Choirs Festival; and Edward *Elgar was born in the village of Broadheath, 5km/3m to the west.
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