Worcestershire Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. Between 1974 and 1998, it was merged with the neighbouring county of Herefordshire as Hereford and Worcester. The cathedral city of Worcester is the largest settlement and county town. Other major towns in the county include Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, Malvern, Redditch, and Stourport-on-Severn. The north-east of Worcestershire includes part of the industrial West Midlands; the rest of the county is largely rural. The county is divided into six administrative districts: Worcester, Redditch, Wychavon, Malvern Hills, Wyre Forest, and Bromsgrove. The county borders
Economics of English towns and trade in the Middle Ages during the period. The provincial towns also had a substantial number of trades by the end of the 13th century - a large town like Coventry, for example, contained over three hundred different specialist occupations, and a smaller town such as Durham could support some sixty different professions. The increasing wealth of the nobility and the church was reflected in the widespread building of cathedrals and other prestigious buildings in the larger towns, in turn making use of lead from English mines for roofing. Land transport remained much more expensive than river or sea transport during the period. Many towns