Leominster

Happy Saint George's Day!
Leominster (pronounced Lemster) is a lovely Herefordshire town with lots of old buildings. Grange Court (pictured above) was built in 1633 as a Market Hall for Leominster by the King James I's carpenter, John Abel. By the early 1790's complaints were being made that the building was causing traffic problems and it was moved in the 1850's to it's present location on Leominster's Mediaeval Grange, near to the Priory.
Leominster is where the last recorded use of a ducking stool in England took place in 1809. They've gone very politically correct these days and don't mention it was used on nagging wives! The original stool is now preserved in Leominster's Priory Church, which sadly was locked when I visited!
However I did see a ducking stool on the Millennium Clock, which I gather has been beset by problems and wasn't working.
I also went to the Tourist Information office:
but nearly missed another ducking stool above the door:
Anyway, I started off rather badly, looking for good food shops. Drapers Lane Butchers have a good reputation but were closed when I visited:
so I had to go window shopping instead:
Drapers Lane Butchers
16 Drapers Lane
Leominster
Herefordshire
HR6 8ND

Tel: 01568 613981
I have happy memories of shopping in Barber and Manuel, but gather it's changed hands and was also closed when I called.

Barber & Manuel
Jubilee Building
Victoria Street
Leominster
HR6 8LP

Tel: 01568 613381

I was getting rather disappointed but then I found a brilliant deli and that one of my favourite beer shops had moved next to a good cheese shop, so I'll cover these in the next posts.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is it coincidence that you feature St George - the slayer of dragons and a ducking stool for nagging wives in the same post?
Bill Pearson said…
Certainly not!!!