I HAVE walked around Worcester Cathedral many times and never cease to marvel at the sights on offer.

King John’s tomb, the Walton Waterloo memorial, Bishop Philpott, generations of the Wyld family and Prince Arthur’s last resting place, to name just a few.

Tucked into every corner of this magnificent building are the fragments of history that help to make Worcestershire the fascinating county that so many people yearn to visit.

I recently attended a meeting of Worcester Civic Society and was shown around the library, a room that for some unfathomable reason had hitherto never felt my footfall.

This is a room crammed with treasures. King John’s thumb bone, the skin of a flayed Dane, a letter from Elizabeth I, mediaeval manuscripts – there is even the evidence of 17th century vandalism in the form of illuminated script cut from pages, the result of diarist Samuel Pepys’ petty pilfering.

And of course, St Wulfstan himself was born at Long Itchington, Warwickshire. I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say his westward pilgrimage quite obviously set in motion the future migration to Worcestershire of some of the Land of the Bear’s greatest men.

King John’s tomb, the Walton Waterloo memorial, Bishop Philpott, generations of the Wyld family and Prince Arthur’s last resting place, to name just a few.

Tucked into every corner of this magnificent building are the fragments of history that help to make Worcestershire the fascinating county that so many people yearn to visit.

I recently attended a meeting of Worcester Civic Society and was shown around the library, a room that for some unfathomable reason had hitherto never felt my footfall.

This is a room crammed with treasures. King John’s thumb bone, the skin of a flayed Dane, a letter from Elizabeth I, mediaeval manuscripts – there is even the evidence of 17th century vandalism in the form of illuminated script cut from pages, the result of diarist Samuel Pepys’ petty pilfering.

And of course, St Wulfstan himself was born at Long Itchington, Warwickshire. I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say his westward pilgrimage quite obviously set in motion the future migration to Worcestershire of some of the Land of the Bear’s greatest men.