Worcestershire Droitwich Spa, Pershore, Tenbury Wells, Stourport-on-Severn and Upton-upon-Severn. The village of Hartlebury housed the Bishop of Worcester from the 13th century until 2007. "For a full list of settlements, see list of places in 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
Economics of English towns and trade in the Middle Ages set of taxes that could be raised by the towns, including murage for walls, pavage for streets or pontage, a temporary tax for the repair of bridges. Combined with the "lex mercatoria", which was a set of codes and customary practices governing trading, provided a reasonable basis for the economic governance of the towns. The 12th century also saw a concerted attempt to curtail the remaining rights of unfree peasant workers and to set out their labour rents more explicitly in the form of the English Common Law. This process resulted in the Magna Carta explicitly authorising feudal landowners to