Boutique hotels
-
Eckington Manor
- Style
- Eclectic elegance
- Setting
- Working Worcestershire farm
-
The Elms
- Style
- Chilled-out child-friendly mansion
- Setting
- Amid the Malverns
Worcestershire Overview
United Kingdom
- Countryside
- Marvellous Malverns
- Country life
- Whistling along to Elgar
Sitting comfortably between the Cotswolds, Warwickshire and the Welsh Marches, Worcestershire is a preserved pocket of tumbling hills, riverside towns and a grand old cathedral city.
This quiet and rural county in the UK’s Midlands links Elgar, Nigel Mansell and the world’s favourite anchovy-based sauce (rather randomly) by birth. Sir Edward’s homeland of hope and glory claims a share of the miniature-mountain Malvern Hills, acres of blooming fruit orchards and riverbank villages along the Severn. In the Cotswolds-fringed south and west, some admirable asparagus grows in the Vale of Evesham and the Georgian market town of Pershore stands on the Avon’s banks. (The north and east are flat and more industrial.) Worcestershire has two Victorian spa towns – Droitwich in the north and Malvern in its hills. And in Worcester itself you’ll even find the burial ground of King John of the Magna Carta if you look around the cathedral long enough.
Wonderfully Worcestershire
A blend of anchovies, molasses and vinegar, the county’s namesake condiment tastes better than it sounds. In 1837, a colonial fellow pining for the ‘secret sauce’ he’d tasted in India pestered chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins to put their heads together. The resulting Worcestshire Sauce has been lacing bloody marys and chintzing up cheese on toast ever since.
Local Knowledge
- Taxis
- In Worcester and the county’s bigger towns (such as Kidderminster and Stourport) you can hail cabs in the street, and most rail stations have ranks. Village-based cab-hunters will do best to book.
- Tipping culture
- Around 10–15 per cent is standard but check a discretionary 12.5 per cent hasn’t already been added to your bill to avoid tipping twice.
- Packing tips
- Salt-proof swimmers for an afternoon dip at Droitwich’s brine baths; an Elgar CD or two for your rolling rural road trip.
- Recommended reads
- Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (who once deigned to stay in Upton-upon-Severn); Bredon Hill from AE Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (his home county gets a mention); an Elgar biography such as Elgar: An Anniversary Portrait by Nicholas Kenyon.
- Regional specialities
- Pick up the best asparagus in the UK during May and June – the Evesham Valley hosts the British Asparagus Festival each year. Plums are rather good in these parts, too (something to do with the fertile river plains). The area is also a leading producer of wine, cider and beer. And a bloody mary is the best way to toast Mr Lea and Mr Perrins.
- Currency
- Around 10–15 per cent is standard but check a discretionary 12.5 per cent hasn’t already been added to your bill to avoid tipping twice.
- Time zone
- GMT.
- Dialling codes
- UK country code: +44; Worcester: 01905; Stourport: 01299.
- Do go/don't go
- The countryside comes alive in late spring with bluebells and fruit-tree blossom.
Don't go home without...
…exploring the Vale of Evesham, the soft-fruit capital of England. Mid-March to Mid-May sees the Spring Blossom Trail across the valley covered in feistily fruity colours. Come summer, gorge on its harvest of damsons, sunberries and plums.
