History of Worcester

Worcester's early importance is partly due to its position on trade routes, but also because it was a centre of Church learning and wealth, due to the very large possessions of the See and Priory accumulated in the Anglo-Saxon period. After the reformation, Worcester continued as a centre of learning, with two early grammar schools with strong links to Oxford University.

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. For similar reasons, it was valuable to the crown during the English Civil War.

The city was a centre of the cloth trade, and later of glove production. It had a number of foundries and made machine tools for the car industry.

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.