a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Worcestershire, on the Stour, near its junction with the Severn, 13 miles N. of Worcester. It is irregularly built, and most of the houses are small, but the streets are well paved and lighted. The best building in the town is the parish church, a fine old structure in the perpendicular style, with a tower. There is a free grammar school, with a revenue of about £280, but indifferently attended. The total number of pupils at all the schools is about 1000; there are three literary institutions. Kidderminster has been celebrated for more than a century for its carpets, in the manufacture of which extensive improvements have been introduced within the last few years. Bombazeens, waistcoatings and damask, and silk goods are also made here. There are some tanneries, breweries, &c. The Stafford and Worcester Canal, and the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway pass by the town. It returns one member to parliament. Constituency in 1856, 511. Pop. 18,462. Kidderminster was at one time the property of the poet Waller, and enjoyed for many years the pastoral ministrations of Richard Baxter.