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Kidderminster Leasing

Did You Know?

The place name indicates a much earlier existence. 'Minster' is a Saxon word for a monastery or large church. Scholars now believe that a charter of the year 736, whereby King Aethelbald of Mercia granted land for the creation of a monastery, referred to the Kidderminster area. The site of the town was favourable.

The origins of Kidderminster are thought to pre-date the Norman Conquest, which as the place-name suggests, may have been ecclesiastical in function. By the time of Domesday, a small market town was recorded along with several outlying settlements.

Richard Baxter (1615-91) is probably the most distinguished person to be associated with the town. In 1641 he was appointed as lecturer attached to St Mary's church by the Puritan burgesses of Kidderminster.

Kidderminster, town, Wyre Forest district, administrative and historic county of Worcestershire, west-central England. It is situated along the River Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

By the mid-19th century Kidderminster developed into a factory town and one of the most important centres for carpet making in Britain. The Brinton family first began to manufacture carpets in the town in the late 18th century.

Kidderminster, in particular, became a hub for carpet production in the 19th century and had more than 50 carpet factories operating in the city. Its high-quality, woollen carpets, which were produced by highly skilled weavers and sold to customers all over the world became famous.

You may know Kidderminster for the West Midlands Safari Park and the Severn Valley Railway but there are plenty of other interesting places.

Sir Rowland Hill,  who was born in Kidderminster, is best remembered for inventing the first adhesive postal stamp - the Penny Black Stamp. In the 1830s, postage was paid by the recipient, not the sender. Hill argued that there should be a better system and came up with a flat rate, regardless of distance.

In the 1960s, a dance club in Kidderminster was one of the go-to places to see famous bands perform. Frank Freeman’s Dance Club provided a stage for many aspiring artists who went on to become household names.

Kidderminster is known for its once-thriving carpet industry. Many sites around the town have been commemorated for their links back to the famous trade but Mount Skippet has been remembered as the birthplace.

Do you like a glass of wine? Well, your medieval ancestors did too and their favourite spot was under the building now known as the Swan Centre, and under there lies buried medieval vaults.

Way back in 1801 Widow Ann Robinson, her two daughters and a man, all from Kidderminster, were put through the barbarous trial by water for being a witch. They were flung into the Severn where 'they would not sink but soared aloft' according to a diary entry by Henry Townshend of Elmley Lovett.