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Fort Royal is a public park in Worcester that served as a Royalist redoubt overlooking the city during the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The defences were earthworks and little trace of them remains visible. The fort was stormed and captured by Parliamentary forces.
Future US presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited the site in 1786. Adams wrote that he asked local people, who seemed unaware of the significance of the place, “And do Englishmen so soon forget the ground where liberty was fought for? Tell your neighbors and your children that this is holy ground; much holier than that on which your churches stand. All England should come in pilgrimage to this hill once a year."
The occasion was commemorated in 2009 by a Virginian oak being planted nearby, by the Defence Attaché to the Embassy of the USA, Rear Admiral Ronald H Henderson.
Post code is for a small car park. Pedestrian access is off Wylde’s Lane.
Worcester
It may come as a surprise that one of - if not the - finest Baroque churches in Britain is not in London, but in rural Worcestershire. It dates from 1735, replacing an earlier medieval parish church which stood a little way to the west. It was built by the then owners of neighbouring Witley Court, the Foleys, possibly for their convenience, but not as a private chapel; it has always been a parish church. In 1747, the interior was transformed by the installation of internal decoration from the chapel at Canons, Lord Chandos' Edgware palace - and the impact is astonishing. Dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, Great Witley Church also boasts the Foley Monument, at 26 feet (8 metres) reputed to be the tallest funerary monument in the country.
off Worcester Road
Great Witley
Worcester’s current Guildhall is an impressive Queen Anne style building, completed in 1723. It is home to the Council Chamber, the City’s former Court Rooms and the Mayor’s Parlour and an impressive and imposing Assembly Room, described by King George III as "a handsome gallery" when he visited in August 1788. Praise indeed (George was obviously not prone to excessive enthusiasm). Statues of King Charles I and King Charles II were erected either side of the main entrance, lest anyone doubt Worcester’s Royal allegiance, and above is a statue of Queen Anne. The building is open to the public – though check before visiting because some rooms may not be open. The City’s tourist information office is also located in Worcester's Guildhall and has its own entrance, on the left.
Worcester
Hereford Cathedral was founded in the year 696 and is dedicated to Ethelbert, a young late 8th-century king of East Anglia who was murdered on the orders of King Offa of Mercia (or his queen) and who was interred in the church. There is no trace of the earlier buildings; the current structures date from the 11th and 12th centuries and there is a magnificent Norman nave, with massive Romanesque arches. The Cathedral is famous for its chained library and its many treasures, not least the Mappa Mundi, a graphical representation of the medieval world, physical and spiritual, made (possibly for the Cathedral) by Richard of Holdingham in the early 14th century. The Chained Library, an early form of security system whereby books are literally chained to shelves in such a way that they can still be read, dates from 1611. Among its many manuscripts is an 8th century gospel and a copy of Magna Carta from 1217.
Hereford
Ironbridge, named for the world's first cast-iron bridge, built in 1779, that spans the River Severn and its beautiful gorge, is a charming, colourful and now relatively peaceful Shropshire town. You would hardly know that it had been at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, century iron bridge. Part of a World Heritage Site, there are many museums in the town and nearby, as well as walks.
Ironbridge, named for the world’s first cast-iron bridge, constructed there across the Severn in 1779, has a unique part in the story of the Industrial Revolution and, to many, is a symbol of it. It was here that Abraham Darby I pioneered using coke to smelt iron ore. The area contains examples of many of the components of progress, from mines to factories to housing to transport, that resulted in it being the most technologically advanced place in the world by the end of the 18th century. Today, the town of Ironbridge itself is peaceful and charming, but the reminders of its noisier and dirtier past are all around, including the Iron Bridge itself, Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, the Museum of the Gorge, Blists Hill Victorian Town, Jackfield Tile Museum, Coalport China Museum, the Broseley Pipeworks, intriguing Tar Tunnel and the houses the Darby family lived in.
The bridge has been painted red since this photo was taken.
The Katyn Memorial in Cannock Chase is in a peaceful woodland clearing and commemorates 25,000 Polish men murdered by the Soviet Union’s security police in 1940. Mass graves were uncovered by the Nazis in Katyn Forest, near Smolensk, in 1943. The victims, many of them with bound hands and still with their identity papers on them, had been shot in the back of the head. This memorial was unveiled in 1979 and is one of several memorials in the UK and around the world to the massacre at Katyn. It is about half a mile from the Commonwealth War Grave and German cemeteries.
Brocton
Once a royal castle, and a favourite residence of Lancastrian kings. But Kenilworth is associated by the majority of people with the Elizabethan era, when it was owned by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the queen's favourite. Though Kenilworth Castle is mostly ruined now, some rooms can still be seen, together with period fittings and furnishings. The site is enormous and impressive, and now includes an Elizabethan garden.
Castle Road
Kenilworth
Lichfield Cathedral is the only 3-spired medieval cathedral in England; its spires have long been known as 'the Ladies of the Vale'. Founded by Chad in the 7th century (and dedicated to him and St Mary) the present Gothic building largely took shape between the 12th and 14th centuries. It was particularly badly damaged during the Civil War - canon balls destroyed parts and wrecked others - but subsequently restored. Lichfield Cathedral is the repository for the 8th century Chad Gospels and also home to the Lichfield Angel, a piece of Anglo-Saxon carving discovered during building work. Among the many other treasures to be seen is the marble memorial 'Sleeping Children', which is particularly evocative.
Lichfield
The National Memorial Arboretum is a centre of remembrance for the fallen - members of the armed forces, civilian services and ordinary people. It is set in 150 acres of reclaimed gravel pits between the rivers Trent and Tarne. There is an astonishing variety of memorials - 320 of them at the last count - to every conceivable group you can imagine - surrounded by 30,000 trees. It is both impressive and humbling.
The NMA is managed by the Royal British Legion.
Alrewas
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