Just the spot for sheep farmers
What's it got going for it? Leominster's not exactly handy for the shops. It's not exactly handy for anything, really, except perhaps sheep farming, or for a trip to that burgeoning metropolis, Hereford. But it's just the spot if you want a cosy retreat from life, especially if you happen to be a sheep farmer with a regular need to pop into a small cathedral town to check out the charity shops. Or, maybe, if you're a retired medievalist who needs the Mappa Mundi on hand. Or, like me, you love Herefordshire's bucolic, isolated, slightly forgotten-about landscape, its blowsy fields and surprisingly steep hills, and have a particular taste for medieval, half-timbered vernacular architecture. I used to live nearby and roam through the piddling pretty market towns of west Herefordshire ? Kington, Pembridge, Wigmore, Hay ? marvelling at their stilted market halls and dusty old secondhand bookshops piled with 1930s travel guides (I was an odd teenager). But Leominster was my favourite. If I do become a retired medieval scholar (there's still time), you'll know where to find me.
The case against Kind of remote. Sometimes not in a good way. If I did end up here, I might never shave again. And if you do not find dusty old secondhand bookshops piled with 30s travel guides the peak of entertainment, you may go mad.
Well connected? No, no, no and no. Bring a car or an antique bicycle with a wicker basket. There is a railway, though, handy for Ludlow (10 mins, hourly, mostly) and Hereford (15 mins, hourly, mostly).
Schools Leominster Junior is "good", says Ofsted, and Leominster Infants "good", too. The newly renamed and rebuilt Earl Mortimer College was "satisfactory" when it was last inspected as the Minster College.
Hang out at? You have your boozers in town, but the Bell Inn, outside at Yarpole, with its in-house cider press, is the pick for a treat.
Where to buy West, where the town sprawls into the countryside: on and off Baron's Cross Road with all manner of leafy streets hanging off it. In town, check out the south and east towards South Street and the Bargates. Expect fine brick properties, Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian, but also little half-timbered gems.
Market values Large detacheds and town houses, �250,000-�420,000. Detacheds, �150,000-�270,000. Semis, �130,000-�270,000. Terraces, �115,000-�175,000.
Bargain of the week Three-bed end-of-terrace, needing improvement, but with a lovely garden, south of the Bargates; �115,000, with Jackson International.
From the streets
Sue Rowe "Remember to pronounce it 'Lemster'. Small shops, friendly staff. Wales next door and the countryside is lovely."
Peter Ellis "Unpretentious and inexpensive, unspoilt by national retail outlets."
Clare Cathcart and Jem Ward "If you move here you'll always have to tell people how to pronounce or spell it. It has the most polluted traffic intersection in the county (the bottom of the Bargates) and its MP has one of the largest Conservative majorities in the UK. We love it ? we just don't want everyone else to move here."
? Live in Leominster? Join the debate below.
Do you live in Leyton, east London? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, please write, by Tuesday 14 June, to lets.move@guardian.co.uk
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jun/11/lets-move-to-leominster-herefordshire
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