Borchester

Borchester

Borchester is a fictional town in the BBC Radio 4 radio series "The Archers". It is the county town of the fictional county of Borsetshire. According to series tradition it is located 6 miles north-east of Ambridge in the Am Vale and is an historic market and wool town. These typically English country-town features are complemented by more modern additions, such as Underwoods (an upmarket supermarket chain, possibly modelled on Waitrose) and Ambridge Organics, the shop run by Helen Archer. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/whos_who/characters/who_ambridgeorganics.shtml BBC Radio 4 The Archers - Borchester] ]

As the Archers is usually taken to "exist" in a region centred on Evesham and somewhere not too far from the Malvern Hills and the edge of the Cotswolds, Borchester could be connected to Broadway, Tewkesbury or Pershore. Hints in the series about the range of shops, local features and road layout, as well as distances sometimes given between Borchester, Felpersham and Ambridge, tend to point to Pershore as the most likely analogy, if we assume that Felpersham = Evesham. Another school of thought has Felpersham as Worcester and Borchester as Droitwich Spa. This view is supported by the existence of a Bishop at Felpersham - Evesham does not have a Bishopric whereas Worcester does.

Although it is a county town, it is not a city. The nearby Felpersham, which might be based on Evesham, is the seat of a Church of England diocese and does have the city status that that usually implies. Borchester has a by-pass, built with much controversy during the 1980s. Evesham and Droitwich Spa both have by-passes but not Pershore.

The BBC published a map of Borchester in the 1990s, which, across a north-south axis common to both towns, was a 'cut and paste' of Evesham west of the axis and Great Malvern to the east.

Borchester is the location of the magistrates court in the area. Phil Archer served as a magistrate there for many years. In 1968, Nelson Gabriel, one of the most famous characters in The Archers, and a notorious rogue, was committed for trial and remanded in Gloucester prison at the Borchester magistrates. He returned many years later to run a wine bar in the town from 1980 to 84.

Borchester is the scene of frequent shopping trips and social encounters in the series. It has a mixture of trendy, "southern England" features such as wine bars and upmarket delis combined with some working class neighbourhoods. The Grundy family lived for a while in a substandard council flat in Borchester after being evicted from Grange Farm in 2000.

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of characters in The Archers — This is a list of many of the characters from the long running British radio soap The Archers .A list of all Archers characters, and the actors who played them, can be found [http://www.azande.demon.co.uk/archers/castlist.htm here] , although the …   Wikipedia

  • List of The Archers characters — This is a list of many of the characters from the long running British radio soap The Archers. A list of all Archers characters, and the actors who played them, can be found here, although the list ends in 1997. The credits which follow are not… …   Wikipedia

  • The Archers — Infobox Radio Show show name = The Archers imagesize = 130x130px caption = The podcast picture of the soap other names = format = Soap Opera runtime = 15 minutes, later 12½ minutes country = flagcountry|United Kingdom language = English home… …   Wikipedia

  • Borsetshire — is a fictional county in the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers . Its county town is the equally fictional Borchester. Other places in the county include Ambridge, where The Archers is mainly set, Lower Loxley , a nearby village and Felpersham, a… …   Wikipedia

  • Mankwold — is the common name for the fictional form of English soft cheese, created by the character Helen Archer in the Borsetshire village of Ambridge, in the long running Radio 4 soap opera The Archers .The formal name for the cheese, as used on the… …   Wikipedia

  • Ambridge (The Archers) — Ambridge is a fictional village and the setting for most of the action in The Archers , a long running serial drama on BBC Radio 4. Ambridge is located on the banks of the (fictional) River Am, in the (fictional) county of Borsetshire, which is… …   Wikipedia

  • Felpersham — is a fictional city in the BBC Radio 4 radio series The Archers . It is probably the largest town in the fictional county of Borsetshire. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/wallpaper/ Maps of Borsetshire showing Felpersham] ] Felpersham is… …   Wikipedia

  • List of fictional newspapers — This is a list of fictional newspapers from forms of media such as films, television, and books. Fictional newspapersFrom the Discworld series* The Ankh Morpork Inquirer * The Ankh Morpork Times * The Sto Plains Dealer * The Pseudopolis Herald *… …   Wikipedia

  • Mark Perry (impressionist) — Mark Perry (born Phillip Perry[1]) is a British impressionist and his notable impressions include; David Dickinson, John Prescott and the late Robin Cook. Perry is known for playing various public figures in Dead Ringers and 2DTV. In 2007 he… …   Wikipedia

  • Nelson Gabriel — (played by Jack May[1]) was a character in the long running BBC Radio series The Archers.[2] The son of Walter Gabriel, the village carrier and self appointed character, Nelson was for many years the most disreputable character in the village.[3] …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”