Worcester's motto is the Faithful City, as it stayed resolutely Royalist during the English Civil War of the mid-17th Century. Bullet holes can still be seen along one of the city's ancient bridges.

King John, who ruled England during the time of Robin Hood, lies buried in Worcester. The monarch, who was on the throne between 1199 and 1216, died the year after he gave into the demands of medieval barons and signed the Magna Carta, effectively Britain's Bill of Rights. His tomb can be found in Worcester Cathedral.

The Severn, Britain's longest river, wends its way past the Cathedral and Worcester's world-famous cricket ground. The Severn burst its banks in November, 2000, causing widespread chaos - and dramatic scenes for sightseers, who clambered to the top of the Cathedral to take pictures.

Worcester's also home of one of the world's best-known sauces, the dark and spicy Worcestershire Sauce, concocted by two chemists in 1835, Lea and Perrins. Their original brew tasted grim but, after the mix lay neglected in a cellar for two years, it was transformed into an exotic sauce, the ingredients to which remain kept secret even today.

Locality:

Worcester is the capital city of the County of Worcestershire and lies beside the River Seven some 25 miles from the Cotswolds village of Broadway, and is easily accessible from all areas of the country.