Leominster

Leominster (pronounced Lemster), a market-town of Herefordshire, on the Lug, 13 miles N. of Hereford. A monastery was founded here in 658; and the fine church of a later priory presents every style from Norman to Perpendicular. It was restored by Sir G. G. Scott in 1866, and enlarged in 1879. The quaint old timber Butter Cross (1633) was in 1855 transferred to a new site to make room for an Italian town-hall; there is also a corn exchange (1859). Leather gloves are the staple manufacture, and there is a great trade in hops and cider. Incorporated as a municipal borough by Queen Mary, Leominster till 1868 returned two members, and till 1885 one. Pop. (1851) 5214; (1881) 6044; (1891) 5675. See histories by Price (1795) and Townsend (1863).