Over half a million pounds is to be invested in bringing three properties in the heart of a Herefordshire town up to scratch.

Historic England’s Leominster High Street Heritage Action Zone funding is worth £1.8 million in total for the town, which is being match-funded by Herefordshire Council.

Under the latest announcement:

  • £250,818 will go to the Rankin Club building, home to a social club on Corn Square;
  • £174,015 will be spent on 26 & 26A Broad Street, currently home to a mortgage broker and firm of solicitors respectively;
  • £119,592 will go to Parry’s Fruit & Veg shop at 31 High Street.

All three lie within the town’s conservation area, with the Rankin Club and Broad Street properties also individually grade II listed.

Grants under the scheme, first announced in 2020, are intended to restore key historic buildings and shopfronts, and bring underused buildings back into use.

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In explaining its funding, Historic England described Leominster’s shopfronts as “of particularly good quality, with lovely detailing and a range of styles”.

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Funding is also going on improving Corn Square itself, as well as bringing in wi-fi and footfall counters to the town centre, launching a town heritage app, and reviewing the protection of Leominster’s buildings.

The allocations to individual properties follow a public consultation in the town last summer.

The funding decisions were then made in autumn but have just been published on Herefordshire Council’s website.

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