Leominster

City in Worcester County, north-central Massachusetts, on the Nashua River, 29 km/18 mi north of Worcester; population (1998 est) 40,240. Industries include plastics, paper products, clothing, machinery, and chemicals. The site was bought from the Nashua people in 1701. It was incorporated as a town in 1740, and as a city in 1915.

Leominster is named after Leominster in Herefordshire, England, but the pronunciation is different. The US Leominster is pronounced ‘Lemonster’, the English one ‘Lemster’.

The US pioneer and folk hero Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) was born here in 1774; Johnny Appleseed Day is celebrated in June.

The town houses a Plastics Museum and the Plastics Technology Centre.

Leominster

Market town in Herefordshire, England, 19 km/12 mi north of Hereford, on the River Lugg; population (2001) 11,100. Formerly a centre of the wool trade, Leominster now trades chiefly in livestock and other agricultural produce.

Leominster has wide streets and some fine old timbered houses. The 12th-century church has a Norman nave and fine window tracery (pattern of interlacing ribs). The town originated from a monastery founded by Merwald, king of Mercia (the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that emerged in the 6th century). Merwald had a castle nearby.

The town's charter of incorporation was granted by Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. Leominster was represented by members of Parliament as early as 1295.