Worcestershire's done: 37 down, 13 to go...

Hey guys! As you can see from the title, Worcestershire has been crossed off the list of areas still to visit, which means I've visited almost three-quarters of the isle. Worcester itself was overall very good: grimy in places, and in need of some new industries, but it is a nice enough city and in the Commandery it has one of the best history museums I've ever been to.

I'll be writing in greater detail about Worcester later on, but my overall impression was that it was a place that has done well for itself despite taking numerous batterings: it's been a battleground for the Civil War (twice), flooded by the River Severn on numerous occasions, and has suffered the effects of slums and overcrowding. Nevertheless, it is still internationally renowned for the excellent Worcestershire sauce, is a decent sporting venue, and has a impressive array of local shops. Just don't make your way to the centre from Worcester Shrub Hill station: you pass through the former industrial area, and it makes for grim viewing.

Coming up next on the tour...

• Tomorrow sees me take on Herefordshire, as Ed Stevens, Chris Parry, Tom Hards and Andrew Hartley accompany me to Hereford. We're hoping to visit the National Cider Museum before watching a thrilling encounter between Hereford United and Cheltenham Town: bit of a local derby that one!
• On Tuesday I head off to York in order to discover a bit more about the supposed gem of the North. Hopefully it won't rain as much as it did last time...
• Finally, Wednesday is a pretty hectic day, as I go from North Yorkshire to Lincolnshire via Nottinghamshire (again) to visit Lincoln Cathedral and Castle, before going to East Yorkshire via South Yorkshire (again) to watch Hull City vs Tottenham Hotspur. Keeping track? Excellent...

So there you have it: by the time I finish all that, I'll have done 40 out of 50. Whoop! But now, back to working in the office at Stroud. Thanks for reading, I'll have a brief report on Hereford soonish!

Chris