The square, Leominster in Herefordshire, England, located at the confluence of the Rivers Lugg and Kenwater
Leominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England, located at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater, 12 miles (19 km) north of Hereford. One of the last ordeals by ducking stool took place in Leominster in 1809, with Jenny Pipes as the final incumbent. The ducking stool is on public display in Leominster Priory; a mechanised depiction of it is featured on the town clock. During the Early Middle Ages, Leominster was home to Æthelmod of Leominster, an English saint known to history mainly through the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript. 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. 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. 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 located the position of the cloister, although most of the stone had been stolen following the Dissolution. Discarded 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 660 CE 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" 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 i
Size: 6000px × 4000px
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK
Photo credit: © Philip Chapman / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: benedictine, black, church, clock, ducking, glyndŵ, herefordshire, jenny, kenwater, lugg, manuscript, market, monastery, owain, pipes, priory, river, ryeland, saint, secgan, sheep, stool, timber, timberframed, town, white, Æthelmod
