Reportedly studied trench in Worcestershire town (8)
I believe the answer is:
redditch
'worcestershire town' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'reportedly studied trench' is the wordplay.
'reportedly' shows a homophone (sound like).
'studied' becomes 'read' (I've seen this before).
'trench' becomes 'ditch' ('ditch' can be a synonym of 'trench').
'read' sounds like 'red'.
'red'+'ditch'='REDDITCH'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for redditch that I've seen before include "Worcestershire new town" , "English town" , "Midlands settlement" , "Town S. of Birmingham; CD dither (anag.)" .)