The
Local Government Boundary Commission in 1948 proposed a merger of the two counties, but the proposals of this Commission were not implemented. A merger of Herefordshire with South Worcestershire was again proposed by the
Redcliffe-Maud Report in 1969, and was retained in the
Conservative Party's February 1971 White Paper (gaining more of Worcestershire), although no name was given. In the Local Government Bill introduced into Parliament in November 1971, it was named "Malvernshire", after the
Malvern Hills, which were roughly in the geographical centre of the new county and formed the former border. This name was ridiculed and was altered during the Bill's passage through Parliament. The name Wyvern was also suggested, combining the names of the rivers that run through the two cities and counties: the
River Wye through Hereford, and the
River Severn through Worcester; a
wyvern is a dragon emblem often found in heraldry. A commercial radio station for the area,
Wyvern FM was set up in 1982 using this allusion. It was also used much later by the
FirstGroup who renamed their bus operations in the area
First Wyvern as opposed to the more historical
First Midland Red used previously. Herefordshire had about 140,000 people, far fewer than Worcestershire, with about 420,000 and the change was thus perceived in Herefordshire as a takeover rather than a merger, especially after it emerged that the administrative centre was to be located to the east of Worcester city. It never attracted the loyalties of residents. A "Hands off Herefordshire" campaign was set up, and the proposal was opposed by Herefordshire County Council. A
Hereford bull was led down
Whitehall on 6 April 1972, as part of a protest, which also involved a petition handed in at 10 Downing Street calling for the preservation of Herefordshire. Despite the opposition of many of the population of Herefordshire, neither of the county's two Conservative MPs opposed the merger. Parliamentary opposition had to be led from outside the county by
Terry Davis, MP for Bromsgrove, who noted that the petition had been signed by 60,000 people.
Clive Bossom, the MP for Leominster in Herefordshire, supported the merger, noting that "much of South Worcestershire is very like Herefordshire". It was originally proposed to have a single large Herefordshire district within Hereford and Worcester. But this was divided, with separate
Hereford,
South Herefordshire and
Leominster districts, and part of Herefordshire in the
Malvern Hills district. Meanwhile, large sections of Worcestershire in the
Black Country and Birmingham suburbs were moved to the West Midlands. This was intended to create a more unified
metropolitan county, since prior to this the conurbation had been split between Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. As a result, Hereford & Worcester was quite rural in character. These transfers continued a slow process of simplifying Worcestershire's boundaries, which once had included a
complex set of exclaves within other counties. ==Districts==