NOT a lot of people may know this, but Worcester can lay a very decent claim to being the oldest inhabited settlement in the UK. Its history stretches back around 5,000 years and even as recently as the late 1600s it was the largest town in the Midlands.

Back then Birmingham was a market town half the size, so too was Gloucester, while Warwick and Lichfield were considerably smaller still. In 1678 Worcester had a population of more than 10,000, which also put Nottingham (7,000) and Leicester and Coventry (both 6,000) well in the shade.

For many years the late Philip Barker, an eminent archaeologist, lived in the city and carried out several exhaustive studies into its origins. In the late 1960s, aerial photography revealed in astonishing detail evidence of the earliest habitation of the area about 5,000 years ago.

An aerial photo showing the outline of Bronze Age settlements of 5,000 years ago near the Severn between Holt and Grimley (courtesy of the National Monument Record Office, London)

An aerial photo showing the outline of Bronze Age settlements of 5,000 years ago near the Severn between Holt and Grimley (courtesy of the National Monument Record Office, London)

The images showed outlines of ditches and enclosures of Bronze Age settlements of around 3,000BC in fields alongside the Severn from Holt to Grimley and stretching on to the outskirts of present day Worcester.

Archaeological excavations of the gravel terraces each side of the river also unearthed scatters of flints, burial urns and other prehistoric implements. But discoveries of even greater significance were made by digs during the Lich Street (Sack of Worcester) development in the 1960s.

Read more: Whatever became of Goosethrottle Lane and Clap Gate?

These unearthed evidence of strongly fortified settlements of late Bronze Age or early Iron Age between 800 and 100BC. Surveys showed this settlement originally extended southwards to Diglis and overlooked a long stretch of shallow river, capable of being forded at all times except during floods.

When the Romans arrived in the first century AD they replaced the Iron Age settlement at Worcester with a  Roman town, which had greatly strengthened defences and also a large suburb to the north, covering present day Barbourne.

At first this was residential but later became important for iron smelting and other signs of early industry. 

An engraving of Worcester dating to 1732

An engraving of Worcester dating to 1732

After the Romans went home, a pagan tribe the Hwicci took over for 200 years and Worcester was one of the leading centres of the huge kingdom of Mercia, which covered most of the Midlands and across to the Welsh borders.

With the building of the cathedrals, first to St Oswald in 980 and then St Wulstan in 1084, the city became a place of pilgrimage, drawing people from huge distances.

In the 12th and 13th centuries tall and sturdy city walls were erected with substantial entrance gates at The Foregate, Sidbury and St Martin’s and by the 1600s Worcester had a hugely prosperous cloth producing trade.

A paddle steamer passes Worcester Cathedral in 1888

A paddle steamer passes Worcester Cathedral in 1888

Unfortunately it didn’t last and after a peak around 1700, the city’s cloth industry fell into decline and Worcester turned to glove making and the production of fine porcelain.

The earliest images of the city were engravings, but photographs date from the 1860s and here are some of them.