The Faithful City Tour

We hope you enjoyed playing the game and trying to solve the clues! How many did you answer correctly? Check below and see how you got on...

Numerous 'City of Worcester awards' can be found across the City, congratulations on spotting this one and answering clue number 1. This one in College Yard is surrounded by several listed buildings, all with their own unique architecture and character both inside and out, with the magnificent Cathedral as a stunning backdrop!

Hopefully you successfully guessed one of Britain’s finest composers. Sir Edward Elgar, was born not far from College Precincts in Lower Broadheath, a few miles from the centre of Worcester and in the shadow of his beloved Malvern Hills. He finally achieved the recognition that his wife wanted for him when he was knighted in 1904 by King Edward VII.

The initials, 'HHW', refer to the Revd. Herbert Hall Woodward, who was a minor canon and then the Cathedral’s Precentor, who helped form the Choir School in 1882, that was based at the Choir House, you passed on your way around the tour.

There are several blue badges commemorating several influential figures in the Worcestershire area. The one in the Gardens showcases Thomas Tomkins, whio was a Welsh-born composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period and seen as one of the great composers of church music, and in 1628 he was named ‘Composer of (the King’s) Music in ordinary. He lived in Worcester for over 60 years and was an organist for all that time.

Of the 20 brick plaques on the Gate wall highlighting several damaging floods dating back to 1672, the one of 1770 remains to this day the highest mark. Also mentioned in the Faithful Fact that proceeds the answer is the fishy tale of the sturgeon caught in the River Severn, if you couldn’t spot the outline of this huge fish then take a look at the following YouTube link to help identify it… Click here

'Ben fatto' (Well done!) on guessing Florence. Despite the threat of flooding along Severn Way it’s a lovely spot to watch the River Severn just meander on by with a glass of red or white in your hand, maybe make it an Italian Chianti?!

Only 58 more to go! This number of locks takes you along the 29 mile Worcester to Birmingham canal route to the Gas Street Basin in central Birmingham, and all that it offers in the way of entertainment, shopping and eat & drink!

The transportation of this ‘valuable’ cargo was one of the last to use the Worcester to Birmingham canal, up to 1961 this ‘chocolate crumb’ was moved up the canal to the Cadbury factory at Bournville. Yummy!

This steel sculpture, which includes helmets, breast plates and pikes, that were used throughout the English Civil War, was made by Lawrence Walker, a Herefordshire blacksmith, and is dedicated to long-time City Architect Stuart McNidder MBE. As mentioned in the game, Fort Royal Park is close by, and interestingly was visited by the second and third Presidents of the United States. Check out the following links to see what John Adams said about the place, along with directions to it: Click Here and Click Here.

The hall was named after the much-loved and sorely missed Henry Sandon MBE, who apart from his numerous appearances on the Antiques Roadshow, where he showed his tremendous knowledge of ceramics, had a long and varied career in music, from studying music at the Guildhall School of Music before moving to Worcester, where he taught music at the Royal Grammar School and was a lay clerk in the Worcester Cathedral Choir.

You spotted where one of several ‘gates’ attached to the City Walls was originally built. Frog Gate was a minor postern gate leading to a mill in the castle ditch; the wet ditch here was fed by the Frog Brook. The gate was first recorded in 1467 and probably demolished in the late seventeenth century.

If you said 18 then you’ve correctly guessed how many families resided in this street, which was once known as Frog Lane. As mentioned many of these families worked in Worcester’s salmon fishing industry, until around 1929 when the netting of salmon was prohibited.

Well done if you got this clue correct, maybe pop inside, and have celebratory drink! The Cardinal’s Hat is Worcester’s oldest inn and originally dates to the fourteenth century, a sensitive restoration in 2013 turned it back into a traditional English ale house, that allowed it to retain a wonderful sense of its unique heritage and appeal! Click Here

Yes, this lovely, peaceful area used to be the site of the city jail (gaol)! Laslett acquired the jail, complete with the prisoners’ treadmill, in 1867 for £2,250 after just 45 years as a penal institute. There’s more fascinating history about this area at the Tudor House’s museum, which you passed between clues 13 and 14, plus check out their website at Click Here.

Methodism, an 18th-century movement founded by John Wesley, sought to reform the Church of England from within. The movement, however, became separate from its parent body and developed into an autonomous church. Wesley himself first came to Worcester in 1760 and in 1772 his followers opened the chapel in New Street that you visited, but it was soon full to overflowing and a new chapel was acquired not too far away in Pump Street.

Ah 1651! In this year our beloved King is believed to have made his escape from the very building that highlights this date, after losing the final battle of the English Civil War. After the Battle of Worcester in September 1651 ended in defeat for Royalist forces, residents of New Street held off Cromwell’s soldiers so that Charles could make his escape from the house. Since then, the building has been a judge’s residence (that included its own dungeon!), a furniture-makers, an antiques shop, and a restaurant.

These wonderful bronze cast statues of famous characters with connections to Worcester, really do add a unique and historical flavour to the Cornmarket area, including that of Matilda Alice Powles, AKA Vesta Tilley, who became one of the best male-impersonators of her era and her life was commemorated in the 1957 film ‘After the Ball’, which saw a very early film appearance of one Ronnie Corbett...

Worcester was the home of the famous mail-order company, Kays, and its heritage can be traced back to a jeweller and watchmaker based in Goose Lane, which became St Swithin’s Street at some point during the 19th century. The shop itself still exists and is currently operated by two small businesses. It was the original home to John Skarratt, an apprenticed clock and watchmaker from London, who founded his business in or about 1794 in these premises, his business grew and prospered in the city, before he moved to bigger premises by 1814 and the Kays story continued.

You found the building where the original Worcestershire sauce was manufactured by Messrs. Lea and Perrins. Interestingly, the version of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce sold in the United States differs from the UK recipe. It uses distilled white vinegar rather than malt vinegar, and in addition, it has three times as much sugar and sodium. This makes the American version sweeter and saltier than the version sold in the UK.

You looked up and spotted the three heads/faces that look out from the Cocky Anchor pub out into Broad Street, in fact the building they are mounted on is one of the quirkiest in Worcester. 61 Broad Street was known as the Cupola House, and it is believed that it was lived in and maybe even built by 18th century artist Joseph Blackburn. There are in fact 6 storeys from the cellar to the domed Gothic belvedere on the roof but is only a single bay wide. Above the pub's frontage, three Venetian windows are surmounted by a painted head, maybe recalling characters Blackburn met on his travels across the Atlantic?

This piece of artwork was sculpted from a Worcester black pear tree which used to stand near to the spot the artwork now resides. It was created by Kenneth Potts who used to work at the world-famous Worcester Porcelain as a modeller. The Museum of Royal Worcester is well worth a visit, trace your steps back to clues 10 & 11 to find the location - plus check out the following link for more information, Click Here.

You’re leaving or entering the Bull Entry side of the Crowngate shopping area, the site of the Old Bull Inn pub, that if stories and tales were to be believed, was used as a smuggler’s haunt along with a network of underground tunnels… allegedly!

You’ve spotted Charles I (his son, Charles II, our King in this quest, is on the opposite side of the entrance) at the front of the Guildhall and hopefully answered that he holds a church in his left hand. The original guild of merchants would not recognise the building now, back then it was a large, timber-framed building with a piazza for shops fronting the street, courts of justice at each end, and a prison to the north of the building. Within the prison there was a cell called the ‘peephole’, which gained a notorious reputation. There was gaoler’s house, with an alehouse attached, from where the gaoler sold ale at an extremely high price to any prisoner who could afford it!