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Leominster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Leominster | |
  Leominster shown within Herefordshire |
|
| Population | 11,000 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| Unitary authority | Herefordshire |
| Ceremonial county | Herefordshire |
| Region | West Midlands |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LEOMINSTER |
| Postcode district | HR6 |
| Dialling code | 01568 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Leominster |
| European Parliament | West Midlands |
| List of places: UK • England • Herefordshire | |
Leominster (pronounced IPA: /ˈlemstɚ/; Welsh: Llanllieni) is a market town at grid reference SO496590 in Herefordshire, England. It has a population of approximately 11,000 and is on the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater in North Herefordshire.
From 1974 to 1996, Leominster served as the administrative centre for the former local government district of Leominster.
Contents |
The town takes its name from a minster, that is a community of clergy in the district of Lene or Leon, probably in turn from an Old Welsh root lei to flow.[1]. Contrary to certain reports, the name has nothing to do with Leofric, an 11th century Earl of Mercia (most famous for being the miserly husband of Lady Godiva). The Welsh name for Leominster, still used today on the Welsh side of the nearby border, is Llanllieni.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a raid by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn on Leominster in 1052 resulted in the Battle of Llanllieni, between the Welsh and a combined force of Normans and English Saxons.
Henry II bestowed the minster and its estates on Reading Abbey, which founded a priory at Leominster in 1121, although there was one here from Saxon times[2]. Its Priory Church of St Peter and St Paul, which now serves as the parish church, is the remaining part of this 12th century Benedictine monastery. Quatrefoil piers were inserted between 1872-79 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.[3]
The priory was ransacked by the Welsh forces of Owain Glyndŵr after their victory at the Battle of Bryn Glas near Pilleth in 1402, along with several local manor houses.
Investigations to the north of the Priory in 2005 located the position of the cloister though most of the stone had been robbed following the dissolution. Disposed animal bones found on the site when submitted to carbon dating showed that the area was occupied in the 7th century. This agrees with the date of 660AD associated with the founding myth which suggests a Christian community was established here by a monk, St Edfrid, from Northumberland.
Leominster is also the historical home of Ryeland sheep, a breed once famed for its 'Lemster' [sic] wool, known as 'Lemster ore'. This wool was prized above all other English wool in trade with the continent of Europe in the Middle Ages. It was the income and prosperity from this wool trade that established the town and the Minster and attracted the envy of the Welsh and other regions.
From approximately 1748 to 1754, Leominster was home to one of only four early cotton spinning mills employing the spinning machines of Lewis Paul and John Wyatt. The mill was financed by Lancashire native Daniel Bourn, and was partly owned by other men from Lancashire. Bourn introduced his own version of the carding engine to work at this mill, and of the four Paul-Wyatt mills, it may have been the most successful, for the Manchester Mercury, reported on November 5, 1754, shortly after the fire that destroyed the mill, commented that the cotton works "had been viewed with great pleasure and admiration by travellers and all who had seen them."
Leominster has gained a reputation in North Herefordshire due to its higher crime levels than it's surrounding area. Recently, the police undertook a piloted scheme and were given the right to break up groups of youths who they believed may be causing problems or being anti-social . The results of this were deemed very unsuccessful and police were extremely pleased with the outcome. An example is a ban on the buying of eggs at certain times of the year, due to the occasional incident of "egging" whereby eggs are thrown at houses and cars. [4]
On the whole, the area has improved dramatically over the past few years[citation needed]
The four-mile A49 £9m bypass opened in November 1988. The town also has a bus station linking the town to Hereford and a number of nearby towns and villages.
There is also Leominster railway station with services for Ludlow and Hereford; links to London are achieved by changing at Newport, South Wales.
The only secondary school in Leominster is the Minster College, a comprehensive with around 750 pupils.[5] It is located fairly centrally, next door to the town's leisure centre and swimming pool. The Minster has received poor results in the past, but county league tables now rank it approximately half way down the list of the county's dozen secondary schools. The Minster is a specialist Sports College. The town's main primary schools are Leominster Infants and Leominster Junior School. There are also a number of local village schools including Ivington C of E primary school, Luston and Stoke Prior.
Leominster is twinned with:
- ^ J. & C. Hillaby, Leominster Minster, Priory, and Borough c.660-1539 (Logaston Press, Almeley, Herefs. 2006), 4-5.
- ^ Hillaby, 53-7
- ^ The Buildings of England: Herefordshire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1963 p226 ISBN 0-14-071025-6
- ^ http://www.westmercia.police.uk/press/leominster.htm
- ^ http://www.minster.hereford.sch.uk/