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The city of Worcester (pronounced /ˈwÊŠstÉ™/) is a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England, situated some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Birmingham and 29 miles (47 km) north of Gloucester. The River Severn runs through the middle, with the city\'s large cathedral overlooking the river. Occupation of the site of Worcester can be dated back to Neolithic times, a village surrounded by defensive ramparts having been founded on the eastern bank of the River Severn here in around 400 BC. The position, which commanded a ford on the river, was in the 1st century used by the Romans to establish what may at first have been a fort on the military route from Glevum (Gloucester) to Viroconium (Wroxeter) but which soon developed — as the frontier of the empire was pushed westwards — into an industrial town with its own pottery kilns and iron-smelting plants.
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