KIDDERMINSTER

town, Wyre Forest district, administrative and historic county of Worcestershire, England. It is situated along the River Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Recorded as Stour-in-Usmere in 736 CE, it was given to the comes (count) Cyneberght by King Aethelbald (reigned 716757). Later it passed to the bishop of Worcester and thence to Cenwulf, king of Mercia (816), and it remained a royal manor until Henry II's reign (115489). The town's once-important cloth trade is first mentioned in 1334; carpet manufacture replaced that of woolen goods in 1735. Pop. (1991) 54,644.