Leominster Museum
Explore history on your doorstep
Leominster and its surrounding villages have a fascinating history
Leominster Museum tells the story of Leominster and its people from pre-Roman times to the present day. The collection contains artefacts, pictures, photographs, postcards and documents, including an important collection of paintings and drawings by famous Leominster Victorian artist John Scarlett Davis. The museum archive is available for research purposes, and the museum has education as the core of its activities.
Leominster Museum is near the top (West) end of Etnam Street opposite the entrance to School Lane (which leads to Corn Square), directly by a pedestrian crossing. For information on disabled access please click on the link to see the information on Access & Visiting Times. Free onstreet parking may be available in Etnam Street. There is a Council pay and display car park nearly opposite the Museum; for current charging rates and times please see the Herefordshire Council website.
Sharing our Songs and Stories
Ralph Vaughan Williams & Ella Mary Leather: Collecting Herefordshire’s folk traditions 100 years ago
We are running a series of ticketed events for the Museum’s ‘Sharing Our Songs and Stories’ project:
10th June 2024, 7.30pm
‘An Exceptional Legacy: Ella Mary Leather, Ralph Vaughan Williams and the songs of old Herefordshire’
Talk by Nicholas Williams, Publishing Director of Stainer & Bell Ltd
14th June 2024, 7pm
Creative Collaboration: A Concert at Leominster Priory
Celebrating the work of Ella Mary Leather and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Featuring the internationally acclaimed violinist Julia Bishop and others
5th July 2024, 7pm
Herefordshire Folk NOW
Featuring Leominster Morris, Fetch Theatre, About Face Theatre & the Mummer’s Boys celebrating Ella Mary Leather’s 150th birthday in song, dance and story
Museum News and Events
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50th Anniversary
Leominster Museum first opened its doors to the public in 1972, and the charity trustees decided recently to celebrate this momentous anniversary around the time of HM the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations.
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Museum Publications
Here you can see a selection of publications available from the Leominster Museum.
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Conserving our Collection
Leominster Museum is delighted to acknowledge payment of a generous AIM Collections Care Audit Grant with Icon and supported by the Pilgrim Trust. Using this grant, we were able to secure the services of Jane Thompson-Webb, of the Birmingham Museums Trust. Jane
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Leominster People
Our new exhibition for 2023 is called Leominster People. It profiles the lives of those who either lived in Leominster all their lives, or spent many years there, and who have made an impact on the world
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Podcast: Visitor Feedback!
Four students from Earl Mortimer College, with their teacher, visited the Museum in March. Listen to what they said about us!
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Sharing Our Songs And Stories
2024 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ella Mary Leather. She worked with the famous English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams to collect songs, stories, and Herefordshire folklore a century ago. Our 2024 project celebrates their collaboration with displays,
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Sharing Our Songs & Stories: Talk by Nicholas WIlliams
Sharing Our Songs & Stories: Nicholas Williams gave a talk on the collaboration between Ella Mary Leather & Ralph Vaughan Williams
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Sharing Our Songs and Stories: Creative Collaborations Concert
On the 14th June, the Museum partnered with Hilary Norris, the Director of Music at Leominster Priory, to present a concert entitled 'Creative Collaborations' which celebrated the work that Ella Mary Leather and Ralph Vaughan Williams did together to collect
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Sharing Our Songs & Stories/Threads Through Creation
Priory Arts and Leominster Museum combined to create a schools event at Leominster Priory,
Object in Focus
An exciting and very topical item has just been deposited at the Museum. It is an Elizabeth II Coronation Stool, used at the late Queen’s Coronation on 2nd June 1953.
Hundreds of stools were made for the ceremony, identical to those made for the Coronations of George VI in 1937, and George V in 1911. Four thousand yards of velvet was produced at Lister’s Mill in Bradford to cover 2,000 chairs and 5,700 stools. The oak wooden frames were made by four different companies in High Wycombe. The design was influenced by Queen Mary, an antique enthusiast. After the ceremony, those who had sat on the stools had the option to buy them as mementos.
At the ceremony, Archer Baldwin MC MP, the MP for Leominster from 1945 until 1959, sat on this stool, which still has its original blue velvet top.
