Borsetshire is a

fictional county Fictional locations are places that exist only in fiction and not in reality, such as the Negaverse or Planet X. Writers may create and describe such places to serve as backdrop for their fictional works. Fictional locations are also created for ...

in the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

series ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...

''. Its

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

is the equally fictional

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 a his ...

. The county is supposedly set between

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, but is also intended as a generic

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

rural county. Its name also echoes

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

's fictional Barsetshire and the real

Dorsetshire Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , Do ...

Geography

Other places in the county include

Ambridge Ambridge may refer to: * Ambridge (''The Archers''), a fictional place in the UK radio programme, ''The Archers'' * Ambridge, Indiana, a former neighborhood, now part of Ambridge Mann, Indiana, US ** Ambridge station, a former railway station in A ...

, where ''The Archers'' is mainly set, Lower Loxley, a nearby village and Felpersham, a cathedral city which appears to be larger than Borchester. Ambridge is on the B3980 six miles south of Borchester and seventeen miles west of Felpersham. Ambridge lies in the valley of the River Am below Lakey Hill from which the (real-life) Malvern Hills may be seen in fine weather. Felpersham is probably the largest settlement in the fictional county of Borsetshire. Felpersham is known to be the seat of a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

diocese, a university, and department stores. Unlike the

, Felpersham has city status. In having a cathedral but not being the county town it can perhaps be compared to

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

. The BBC map of Borsetshire shows most road numbers beginning with "1", which would place it in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

, although some roads begin with "4" (appropriate to its apparent location in the West Midlands), "3", which would place it in the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

, and even "9", which would place it in north-east

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Fictional rivers in the county include the River Mercer, the River Perch and the River Am. There is also a fictional Felpersham Canal. There are railway stations at Felpersham, and at Hollerton Junction (nearer to Ambridge).

Miscellanea

''The Borchester Echo'' is the local newspaper published at Borchester. Radio Borsetshire is a local radio station. Borsetshire Blue is the name of a fictional cheese made by Helen Archer in the programme.BBC Radio 4 The Archers - Borchester
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References

External links

Large map of Borsetshire
{{The Archers Fictional counties The Archers England in fiction West Midlands (region) Fictional locations in the United Kingdom