History of Worcester
The city was often important for strategic military reasons, being close to Gloucester and Oxford as well as Wales, which led to a number of attacks and sieges in the conflicts of the early medieval period.
In politics, Worcester often lagged behind other similar cities in municipal reform, and in the nineteenth and start of the twentieth century, retained corrupt electoral practices in Westminster elections long after gifts and bribes had been made unlawful.
[5] The core of the Roman settlement lay on the high ground around Worcester Cathedral, and was surrounded by a large earthwork rampart and ditch, which was first identified in the 1950s at Little Fish Street.
[6] Traces of the east side of the ditch were recorded along Lich Street by Philip Barker,[7] and probably continued as far as the southern end of the medieval castle bailey, enclosing an area of c.10 ha.
[10] Extramural settlement has been identified during excavations at Castle Street, Deansway, and Sidbury, and is thought to represent the city's northern and eastern suburbs.
[19] The small town was an important distribution centre for goods produced elsewhere, including salt from Droitwich[20] and cattle from the Lake District, Wales, and Northern Scotland.
[21] Most of the inhabitants of Roman Worcester were pagans, and the worship of Vulcan and Venus is suggested by excavated finds from Blackfriars, Castle Street, and The Hive.
The settlement was eventually subsumed by the emerging Kingdom of Mercia,[25] In 680, Worcester was chosen—in preference to both the much larger Gloucester and the royal court at Winchcombe—to be the seat of a new bishopric.
[27] Worcester appears frequently in the historic records prior to the Viking era, often with reference to the church and monastic communities, and showing evidence of extensive ecclesiastical ownership of lands.
[28] In this early phase, the Bishop was already a powerful figure, collecting considerable dues from lands and properties owned, including the Droitwich saltworks.
A military force was sent to deal with the non-payment, while the townspeople attempted to defend themselves by moving to and occupying the island of Bevere, two miles up river, where they were then besieged.
[36] John spent Christmas 1214 at Worcester, During his disputes with the Barons over the administration of justice, before returning to London where discussions leading to Magna Carta began.
This brought conflict to Worcestershire, where the county 's leaders organised against him, and allowed William Marshall, son of the Earl of Pembroke, who was loyal to John, to take possession of Worcester as governor.
In response, the Papacy demanded that Christians be prevented from working in Jewish homes, "lest temporal profit be preferred to the zeal of Christ", and enforcement of the wearing of badges.
[44] The massacre in Worcester was part of a wider campaign by the De Montforts and their allies in the run up to the Second Barons' War, aimed at undermining Henry III.
On 16 January 1275, the queen mother Eleanor of Provence was given permission to expel Jews from towns under her jurisdiction, and within the year, those still remaining in Worcester were forced to move to Hereford.
Members of Parliament had to own freehold property worth 40 shillings a year, and be "of good name and fame, not outlawed, not acombred in accyons as nygh as men may knowe, for worshipp of the seid cite".
[28] Worcester in this period contained green spaces such as orchards and fields between its main streets within the city wall boundary, as evidenced by John Speed's map of 1610.
During the 18th century Worcester experienced significant economic growth, and in 1748 Daniel Defoe could note that 'the inhabitants are generally esteemed rich, being full of business, occasioned chiefly by the clothing-trade'.
[70] Many townhouses were built or remodelled in brick in this period, and surviving and excavated examples were often decorated with ornate plaster- and woodwork, ironwork, and other popular furnishings like delftware tiles.
Local government reform took place in 1835, which for the first time created election procedures for councillors, but also restricted the ability of the city to buy and sell property, requiring Treasury permission.
As the franchise widened, attempts to fix elections through bribes, fake employment in campaigns and gifts of beer became very expensive, making it politically preferable to crack down on them.
A Royal Commission in 1906 finally found that around 500 men on low incomes regarded the purchase of their vote as something they should expect as of right, and a welcome addition to their subsistence.
[81] Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce has been made and bottled in Worcester since around 1837, first produced by two chemists, it is claimed according to a recipe supplied by an unnamed "Nobleman of the County".
Some of the profit from the exhibition was used to build the Victoria Institute in Foregate Street, Worcester, which opened on 1 October 1896 and originally housed the city art gallery and museum.
The War Cabinet, along with Winston Churchill and some 16,000 state workers, would have moved to Hindlip Hall (now part of the complex forming the Headquarters of West Mercia Police), 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Worcester and Parliament would have temporarily seated in Stratford-upon-Avon.
[85] A fuel storage depot was constructed in 1941-2 by Shell-Mex and BP (later operated by Texaco) for the government on the eastern bank of the River Severn, about one mile south of Worcester.
While part of the Royal Infirmary hospital was demolished to make way for the University of Worcester's new city campus, the original Georgian building has been preserved.
[92] The foundry heritage of the city is represented by Morganite Crucible[93] at Norton which produces graphitic shaped products and cements for use in the modern industry.
The city is home to the European manufacturing plant of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, a global Japanese machine tool builder, which was established in 1980.
