Buildings interest me, especially those in my home town, however I have lots of unanswered questions.

How old are they? What are they used for? Who lived and worked in them? Who owned them? Who built them? What’s underneath their skin? What stories do they hold?

Shops and business premises are a particular interest, they bring back memories of growing up, spending time with my parents, brother and later on friends. Recalling particular shops that were favourites, remembering specific purchases, fireworks from Pages Bazaar in School Lane, denim jeans from Keylock’s in Drapers Lane, footwear from Pugh’s in High Street or records from Skelton’s in High Street and later on in West Street.

During July 2026 I made the ‘ambitious’ decision to photograph every shop or former shop in Leominster. It was an ambitious decision as I have taken an awful lot of photos over many days in my quest to capture all of them at one specific time period, and produce a good documentary image of each building.

My hope is to form an archive, a ‘snapshot’ of what we have in 2026, knowing that things change so quickly. For instance this summer Colin Reynolds of ‘Leominster Carpets’ in Drapers Lane has announced his retirement; ‘Best Wishes’ Card and Gift shop has moved from High Street to Drapers Lane. Martin’s Newsagents is to close this month, along with Leominster’s Post Office, and a new shop has just opened in Corn Street where the TSB Bank once was.

Now that I have all these photos of Leominster Shops and will be exhibiting a selection of 50 shop photographs at ‘The Old Stables Gallery’ within Leominster Information Centre in Corn Square during August 2026.

I’m asking people to visit and tell me ‘What was there?’ and to leave any interesting facts, stories, comments, information or photos about these and any other shops within the town. I’ll add some of this information on my website so that people can see what has been said and discover for themselves.

This is a limited exhibition that is really a trial to see what interest there is in this type of social history, and if it works I will seek funding to carry on with the project over the coming years.

Christopher Preece July 2026