The monastery of St Peter, which existed here in the 7thc, was destroyed by the Danes during 9thc. It was subsequently refounded as a secular college and then a nunnery but this had ceased to exist by 1046. The manor of Leominster was held by Edith, Edward the Confessor’s queen, and had reverted to the Crown by 1086. In 1123 the manor and the (ruined) church were given by Henry 1 to his newly founded abbey of Reading. Thus Leominster became a Benedictine priory and a cell of Reading.
Soon after 1130 four altars were dedicated, suggesting that at least the presbytery and the transepts were ready at that time. One of the altars mentioned is that of the Holy Cross and the usual position of that altar was at the E end of the nave, in front of the pulpitum. During the C13th and later, the church was enlarged southwards, when the original S aisle was replaced by a more spacious one. After the suppression of the monasteries in 1539, the monastic buildings (to the N and NE of the church) were demolished and also the presbytery, the transept and the crossing tower. The nave then became the parish church. There was a major restoration of the building by G G Scott in 1866 and 1878-9 and of the W tower in 1891. Excavations in 1853 and 1932 revealed the plan of the E end of the church, which consisted of a presbytery with an ambulatory and the three radiating chapels, the central of which was later replaced by a rectangular Lady Chapel. The transept arms each had an apsidal chapel to the E. The plan of the E part of the church was thus modelled on that of Reading Abbey.