Leominster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the city of Leominster, Massachusetts, see Leominster, Massachusetts.
Leominster (pronounced [ˈlɛmstə:]) 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.
The four-mile A49 £9m bypass opened in November 1988.
From 1974 to 1996, Leominster served as the administrative centre for the former local government district of Leominster and remains the centre of Leominster parliamentary constituency which covers northern Herefordshire as well as a small part of north-west Worcestershire.
The town shares a friendly rivalry with Hereford, though the two are united by their shared rivalry with Ross-on-Wye and its environs, referred to jokingly as 'South of the River'. In recent years, Leominster's multitude of antique shops has brought many visitors to the town.
The town also has a namesake in the USA: Leominster, Massachusetts, a town of around 40,000 in central Massachusetts 20 miles north of Worcester and Shrewsbury Massachusetts. This is an area with many towns linked to "Old England".
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[edit] Place name
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 some 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).
[edit] History
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a raid by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn on Leominster in 1052 resulted in the Battle of Llanllieni, between the Welsh and a combined force of Normans and English.
Henry II bestowed the minster and its estates on Reading Abbey, which founded a priory at Leominster in 1121.[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]
Investigations near the Priory in 2005 were thought to have produced evidence of a rotunda dating from 660 but this was not confirmed by subsequent excavations.
[edit] References
- ^ 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
[edit] External links
- Leominster Leominster website
- Leominster FC Leominster Football Club
- The Friends Of Leominster Priory Operation Leofric
- BBC News Important Saxon find in car park
- BBC News Experts excavate Saxon discovery
- BBC News No Saxon find for archaeologists
