Royal Grammar School Worcester

The Royal Grammar School Worcester (also known as RGS Worcester or RGSW) is an independent coeducational school in Worcester, England. Founded before 1291, it is one of the oldest British independent schools.

In September 2007, it merged with the neighbouring Alice Ottley School and was briefly known as RGS Worcester and the Alice Ottley School before reverting to its original name, although the School began accepting girls in 2003 prior to the merger. The school now consists of the main senior school and two preparatory campuses known as Springfield (previously of Alice Ottley School) and The Grange (opened 1996).

Until 1992 it accepted boarders who resided in Whiteladies House, a building that is rumoured to contain hidden treasure from Charles I from when he sought refuge there during the Civil War. It is now a day school.

Tracing its origins back to the 7th century, the school is the sixth oldest school in the world.

History

The school was originally founded as a secular monastic school in Worcester in around 685 by Bishop Bosel. This makes it the 6th oldest school in the world. It was located outside the monastic precincts (as with the King's School, Canterbury) and catered for the relatives of monks and children intending to go into the monastery. The first written reference to the school appears in 1265 when the Bishop of Worcester, Walter de Cantilupe, sent four chaplains into the city to teach.

Worcester

Worcester (ⁱ/ˈwʊstər/ WUUS-tər) is a city and the county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some 17 miles (27 km) southwest of the southern suburbs of Birmingham and 23 miles (37 km) north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 100,000 people.

The River Severn flanks the western side of the city centre, overlooked by the 12th-century Worcester Cathedral. The site of the final battle of the Civil War, Worcester was where Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles II's Cavaliers, cementing the English Interregnum, the eleven-year period during which England and Wales became a republic. Worcester was the home of Royal Worcester Porcelain and, for much of his life, the composer Sir Edward Elgar. It houses the Lea & Perrins factory where the traditional Worcestershire Sauce is made, and is home to one of the UK's fastest-growing universities, the University of Worcester.

History

The trade route past Worcester which later formed part of the Roman Ryknild Street dates to Neolithic times. The position commanded a ford over the River Severn (the river was tidal past Worcester prior to public works projects in the 1840s) and was fortified by the Britons around 400 BC. It would have been on the northern border of the Dobunni and probably subject to the larger communities of the Malvern hillforts. The Roman settlement at the site passes unmentioned by Ptolemy's Geography, the Antonine Itinerary, and the Register of Dignitaries but would have grown up on the road opened between Glevum (Gloucester) and Viroconium (Wroxeter) in the AD 40s and 50s. It may have been the "Vertis" mentioned in the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography. Using charcoal from the Forest of Dean, the Romans operated pottery kilns and ironworks at the site and may have built a small fort.

Worcester (surname)

Worcester is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester (/ˈwʊstər/ WUUSS-tər, locally also ⁱ/ˈwᵻstə/ WISS-tə) is a city and the historic county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States until Massachusetts disbanded county government in 1998. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population was 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston. Worcester is located approximately 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston, and 38 miles (61 km) east of Springfield. Due to its location in Central Massachusetts, amidst Massachusetts' major metropolitan regions, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth", thus, a heart is the official symbol of the city. However, the heart symbol may also have its provenance in lore that Valentine's Day cards were invented in the city.

Worcester was considered its own region for centuries; however, with the encroachment of Boston's suburbs in the 1970s after the construction of Interstate 495 and Interstate 290, it now marks the western periphery of the Boston-Worcester-Providence (MA-RI-NH) U.S. Census Combined Statistical Area (CSA), or Greater Boston. The city features many examples of Victorian-era mill architecture.