Excursion to Leominster

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Excursion to Leominster

Mark suggested we should go to Leominster on Wednesday, 14 May. We took the bus from the country bus station behind Chinese restaurant. There were quite a few passengers on the bus.



Leominster is the second biggest town in Herefordshire (the largest one is Hereford), and it is known for black-white buildings. After we got off the bus, we headed for the Grange Court. The town’s most distinctive building possessed richly carved structure and beautifully lined timber frames in the façade, and the modern heritage centre was adjacent to the historic building. Grange Court was built in 1633 by John Abel, the King’s carpenter and was originally the town hall. We looked round the dining room, galley and nursery and looked at the needlework representing the history of English monarchies and history of Leominster.



Next, we went to the Priory. The history of this priory church dates back from the 7^th century when the foundation was laid, though there were only few records remaining. There were three distinctive naves inside of the priory church, all of which were built in the different period of the time: the early twelfth century with the Norman west doorway, thirteenth and late fourteenth century.



We had lunch at the café on the Draper’s Lane.



We went to the museum on Etham Street. The museum possessed a wealth of historic documents, photos, artefacts related to nature, archaeology, social history, uniforms and agricultural tools, porcelain, etc., all of which have been donated by the local people. The museum collections have extended to the backyard; we saw the exhibition of workshop of the cider factory, saddler and tinsmith. With the historic photos, we confirmed that Grange Court was once standing at the junction of Broad Street and Burgess Street.



Afterwards, we decided to do the riverside walk. We started the trail from the churchyard of the Priory Church. We walked past the Old Priory Hospital (now run as a Youth Hostel) and picnic area. The footpath led us to the Millennium Green and we found the metal sculptured archway depicting two kingfishers. The footpath was lined with the railway line, and we followed the path until we reached the pub by the name of ‘The White Lion’. We crossed over the railway bridge and reached the bank of River Lugg. We went through the kissing gate, saw the mosaic of dragonfly under the A49 Leominster Bypass and explored on Easter Wood a little. We then went back to the riverside path and walked past Easter Court (Brightwell Auctioneers). The auction was in progress; we could hear the details of the estimated value of a wide variety of cars. The footpath led us to Mill Street. We turned left, crossed over the railway crossing and turned left for the footpath called “Paradise Walk” and “Booth Memorial Garden”. We didn’t see very many dragonflies, but we could feel the sense of nature and tranquillity throughout the course.



With Easter Court (Brightwell Auctioneers), Leominster is home to antique shops. We looked round the Merchant House and saw a wide variety of antique furniture, dinner sets, decorative porcelain, music instruments and children’s toys. We were more interested in the second-hand books. I bought two good books at £1.



We had dinner at one of the pubs in Hereford. We ordered the meals, ‘two for the price of one dish’ for the main and dessert dishes. It was really good value for money.

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