South Africa, and it’s “Wooster Sauce” to me. Or “Holbrooks”, which is the default brand here, not L&P.
Wurr-shterr-sherr.
In my childhood household with my Brit mom and grandmother, wooster. As an adult, it’s pretty much what Maggie said. And in fact, if you were to ask mum all those years ago, she’d have said what Maggie said too. Talking to each other, though, wooster. (slight ‘sh’ on the s)
English bloke here.
It’s wooster - wuss-ter.
Yup. Gotta keep you on your toes.
Now, have a go at Towcester. I once had verbal directions with Towcester as a waypoint, and couldn’t find it on the map. If it helps a search there’s a famous racecourse there.
if you’re coming from the Cirencester direction, go through Bicester and then head North.
I pronounce it “zombie embalming fluid.”
I’m a Brit, and I endorse this post.
Full name : Wuss-ter-shuh Sauce
What people actually say: Wuss-ter Sauce.
whats-this-here sauce.
whoorsh-ter-sher
War-chester-shire sauce. I refuse to succumb to the British tendency to ignore every third letter in any word over 6 letters, so as a Proud American I get my money’s worth by pronouncing every syllable. 
Yeah, but you guys can’t even pronounce Leicester right. My first visit I spent an hour looking for “Lester Square” on a map of London.
That’s the way I want to pronounce it, too. Isn’t it weird that you want to pronounce that C as if it were Italian?
I guess if you want to be American about it, you’d have to try Wor-SESS-tuhr-SHIRE.
On the other hand the labels don’t say Lee & Perrins any more, but Heinz.
American: WUSS-ter-sher Sauch. That’s how I saw it nowadays anyhow.
When I was growing up, it was probably something like wursh-ter-sher-shire
As a Worcester (MA) native who never developed the accent, I pronounce it Wuss-ter-shur
People with the accent pronounce it Wuss-tah-sha
I always assumed that we used the same pronunciation as the Brits since we stole the name from them in the first place.
Chefguy - My fiance is from western MA so he’s not familiar with the proper pronunciation of the city/town names in central MA. Last weekend we were trying to find a wedding and it required driving through Leicester MA. He kept fumbling the name of the town/street and I had no clue what he was talking about until I saw the sign for Leicester Street. He got really annoyed when I told him it was pronounced Lester. Worcester annoys him too. He’s never been to Gloucester and that’s probably for the best.
Have you taken him to Leominster yet?
He’s good with Leominster. He went to Fitchburg for college so he learned that one before he met me. He’s befuddled by some of the other eastern MA names though (like Tyngsboro).
Apparently towns are pronounced like they’re spelled in Western MA (except Holyoke - I always get that one wrong, I can never remember if it’s Holy-Oak or Hole-yoke).
Think of it as more than one word squished together like this: Worce ster shire.
I pronounce it “WUUR-shesh-terr”; that’s the best transliteration I can come up with. Or I just make it easy on myself and call it L&P. laughs
Incidentally, I like a little L&P on a well-cooked steak, and it’s an absolutely essential ingredient in my meatloaf and my mother’s barbeque sauce.
It’s spelled “Worcestershire,” but it’s pronounced “Throatwarbler Mangrove.”