Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in ancient times, found in the West Midlands area of central Britain . In 1974 it was combined with the close by county of Herefordshire to form the county of Hereford and Worcester ; which was divided in 1998, re-establishing Worcestershire once again as an independent entity.
Following the year 1998 reform the crest of the Malvern Hills forms the eastwest border between the 2 counties, with the exception of the parish of West Malvern in Worcestershire. The county borders Herefordshire, Staffordshire,Shropshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire. To the west, the county has a border with the Malvern Hills, and the spa city of Malvern. The southern part of the county has a border with Gloucestershire and the northwards edge of the Cotswolds, and to the east is Warwickshire. There are 2 major brooks flowing through the county, the Severn and the Avon.
The cathedral town of Worcester is the biggest settlement and executive seat of the county, which embodies the principal settlements of Bromsgrove, Stourport-on-Severn, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, Malvern, and the biggest city, Redditch, and a considerable number of smaller cities like Pershore, Tenbury Wells, and Upton on Severn. The northwards part of the county includes the beginnings of the enormous urban growth of the industrial West Midlands merger, while the remainder and the south of the county is basically rustic. There are several accents and dialects inside Worcestershire.
The county's north commuter towns like Redditch and Kidderminster had an inflow of the Black Country accent that has influenced the accents of Bromsgrove and parts of Redditch and formed a new accent totally unique to those cities. The remainder of the county has kept the specific tones of the West Country accent, typified and made famous by the The Archers, the planet's longest running radio series, set in a fictional county situated somewhere between the ( in fact, neighboring ) counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Soccer is the hottest sport in the county, and by some way the biggest and most successful football club in the county is Kidderminster Harriers F.C..
In 2000 they became the 1st Worcestershire club to challenge in The Football League. The county is also represented by Worcester Town of the Blue Square Premier South & Bromsgrove Rovers of the Southern Soccer League. The county is home to the Worcestershire County Cricket Club, historically first stop on for the touring state side's schedule in Britain .
The sports clubs players have included Imran Khan, Tom Graveney, Ian Botham, Glenn McGrath, Graeme Hick, Kapil Dev, Vikram Solanki, Don Kenyon and Basil D'Oliveira. Worcester Rugby Football Club, the Worcester Soldiers , whose ground is at Sixways, Worcester, were promoted to the Guinness Premiership in 2004. The village of Broadheath, about six miles ( ten km ) North-West of the town of Worcester, is the birthplace of the composer Edward Elgar. The county was the foundation for The Shire, an area of J. R.R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien named Bilbo Baggins ' house "Bag End" after his Aunt Jane's Worcestershire farm.Tolkien wrote of Worcestershire : "Any corner of that county ( however fair or nasty ) is in an indefinable way 'home ' to me, as no other part of the Earth is." Malvern is the home of the Malvern Fringe Holiday , one of the oldest holidays of its kind in the world.