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Themes Explorers and Adventurers Nobel Prize Winners
Actors/Actresses and Directors Famous People Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes Historic Events Prime Ministers
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Inventors and Scientists Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects Monarchs World Heritage Sites
Composers National Parks Writers and Poets

Worcestershire

Worcestershire lies in west-central England. In 1974 the new county of the West Midlands was formed from part of the county together with parts of Staffordshire and Warwickshire. The West Midlands has since been broken up into smaller authorities. The same year Herefordshire and Worcestershire were united into one county but have since regained their separate county status.



 Towns include the county seat of Worcester.

Anglo-Saxons and Danes
The small kingdom of the Hwicce lay between the kingdoms of Mercia to the north and that of the West Saxons (Wessex) to the south.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

The Malvern Hills form a ridge running from north to south providing spectacular uninterrupted views west into Wales and east over the Cotswolds. The relatively small AONB is spread over three counties, with the eastern party lying in Worcestershire. It includes a mixture landscapes and it was this variety which was the main reason for its designation as an AONB in 1959.

The Cotswolds stretch over six counties, with a small portion of their northern end lying in Worcestershire. They became the country's largest AONB on its creation in 1966. The area is distinctive due to the underlying limestone rock which has created a unique landscape and habitat for plants and animals.

Composers
Edward Elgar was born at Lower Broadheath in 1857. He died in Worcester in 1934 and was buried at Little Malvern.

Edward Elgar
Birthplace museum, Lower Broadheath

Historic Events

Major Battles
In 1265 Simon de Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham ending his rebellion. He had ruled England since his capture of Henry III at the Battle of Lewes the previous year. The battle was part of the second of the Barons' Wars (1263-67), a struggle by the powerful barons to define and therefore restrict the power of the monarch, which would eventually lead to the foundations of today's Parliament.



 In 1650 the future Charles II, son of the executed Charles I, landed in Scotland from forced exile in France and proclaimed King by the Scots. The following year his army marched south but were defeated at the Battle of Worcester by the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell.

Charles managed to evade capture and fled back to France. Although the defeat signalled the end of the English Civil Wars which had been fought on and off since 1642, the Royalist cause would eventually be successful and Charles would ascend the throne in 1660.

 Charles II


Monarchs

House of Plantagenet
House of Plantagenet
In 1216, a year after signing the Magna Carta at Runnymede, King John was buried in Worcester Cathedral. The last of the three Angevin Kings from the House of Plantagenet he had ruled England since 1199.

King John


Nobel Prize Winners

Physiology or Medicine
The pharmacologist John R. Vane was born in Tardebigg in 1927. In 1982 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with the Swedish scientists Sune K. Bergström and Bengt I. Samuelsson. Both Vane and Bergström died in 2004.

 John R. Vane


Places of Interest

Cathedrals and Abbeys
Worcester Cathedral

Historic Buildings
Edward Elgar's birthplace, Lower Broadheath


Prime Ministers
Prime Ministers
Stanley Baldwin, three times Prime Minister in 1923-24, 1924-29 and 1935-37, was born at Lower Park House in Bewdley in 1867. He died at his home at Astley Hall near Stourport-on-Severn in 1947 and is buried at Worcester Cathedral. His administrations saw the General Strike of 1926 and the abdication crisis of Edward VIII ten years later but it was his handling of foreign affairs which finally ended his premiership, when he was forced to resign in 1937 for failing to foresee the threat of Nazi Germany.

 Stanley Baldwin

Royal Consorts and Heirs

House of Tudor
The eldest son of Henry VII and heir to the throne Arthur, Prince of Wales was buried at Worcester Cathedral in 1502. It was his younger brother who became king as Henry VIII on their father's death in 1509.


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