A History of Ludlow

SURVIVAL AND DECLINE
 ‘The secret of Ludlow resides in the fact that, like York, it was once a seat
of government in Tudor and Stewart England.
A sense of its own identity and importance has never quite left it.’
Sir Roy Strong
 
Not all Norman planned towns flourished; many on the Welsh border failed, never becoming more than villages.  Ludlow survived for many reasons; commerce and the market-place were at the heart of the Norman planned community; the town became a centre for production, marketing and distribution of produce of all kinds, and the existence of The Palmers’ Guild guaranteed its success. 
(Click on any photograph to enlarge)
 
Ludlow's recorded history begins in 1086 when the impressive castle was first developed, as one of a line of castles along the Welsh Marches to defend the border and subdue the local Anglo-Saxon population. The local Norman overlords, the De Lacy family, who began building Ludlow Castle, developed a new settlement.  From 1233 onwards the town walls were constructed; Ludlow Castle stood within the circuit of the walls and shared a common line of defence. Four main gates and three postern (secondary) gates were built.  Ludlow was now a fortified town, one of just over a hundred in England and Wales which had a full circuit of walls. As in most fortified towns, the walls and gates served many purposes other than defence, such as controlling entry and enabling market tolls to be collected.

The Ludlow Palmers’ Guild
The Ludlow Palmers’ Guild (Gild) was founded c.1250-60, and by the early 1400s was the leading institution in Ludlow.  A major benefactor of St Laurence’s church, it supported an important chantry and a college of chaplains who provided many services, both spiritual and secular. It provided a kind of mutual insurance service for its members, who came from all over the country, and, at one time, included Richard, Duke of York (1411 – 1460).  As its membership grew, its role changed and earlier ideals became submerged beneath its commercial enterprises.   The Guild accumulated wealth through bequests and purchase, eventually owning about a third of the properties in Ludlow, as well as farms and lands elsewhere.   Endowed with shops, houses and rents, the Guild built properties, leased its many assets, often for a period of 31 years, and extracted a rent.  Leaseholders frequently sub-let the houses, or passed the leases on to their heirs.
By 1550, the Guild owned 241 town properties, and drew rents from 63 others. Following the dissolution of the monasteries and the later Chantry Acts, the Guild was dissolved in 1551, though the following year its assets and many of its responsibilities were transferred to Ludlow Borough Corporation. 

The Borough Corporation
Ludlow town was incorporated at an early period in its history and from 6 July 1189 to 7 December 1461, it was governed by twelve Aldermen (the "chosen Twelve") and twenty-five Burgesses.  By a Charter conferred by King Edward IV, dated 7 December 1461, the interests of the inhabitants were transerred to two Bailiffs, Burgesses and Commonalty "to have perpetual succession and a Common Seal".  At later dates Charters were also granted by Richard III,  Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, William III and Mary.
Ludlow was governed by the Borough Corporation until 1835: its role cannot be overstated.   The Corporation owned a third of the land in the borough, and by the terms of its leases could promote building, ensure repairs and regulate the sale, division and amalgamation of property.  The Corporation’s practice of not increasing town rents meant that leaseholders, if they wished, could sublet property at a handsome profit.

The Council of Wales in the Marches
Politics played a greater part in Ludlow’s fortunes than in most provincial towns.  By the C14, the Mortimers were lords of Ludlow, and Edward IV (1442 – 1483), whose grandmother was the last of this powerful family, rewarded the town for its loyalty to the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses by granting it Borough status.  Edward re-established the Council of Wales in the Marches as a regional administrative body based in Ludlow Castle. This set the royal seal of approval on Ludlow and affected its future in many ways.  The Tudors ran Wales and the border counties from this devolved seat of Government, providing a unique relevance to the town. 
 
Industry
Ludlow’s location was key to the success of its many successive industries: the fast-flowing River Teme curved around the town, powering corn and woollen mills alike, whilst the River Corve provided the desirable ‘watered plots’ of the Dinmore Fee Burgages.  Dyers, glovers, and maltsters thrived, and a town in the centre of grazing country inevitably became involved in the leather trades, providing employment for skinners, saddlers and glovers, cordwainers (corvisers and shoemakers) and tanners (barkers.) 

Urban Culture
These conditions fostered the development of urban culture and in so doing attracted large numbers of immigrants and casual visitors, who came for the market, the fair, or the fashionable season.  There were dealers and travellers, poor people seeking work or a lodging, members of the gentry on a social visit or government officials in need of a base whilst touring the country. 
Listings in the Easter Books for the 1720s and 1730s frequently describe ‘temporary residents’; lodgers, boarders, sojourners (who hired rooms and then lived independently), tablers (who ate with the host family) and even ‘intrading inmates’.  They rented accommodation for long enough to play a part in the social and economic life of the town, although they never acquired their own households.  Many hosts were drawn from the urban elite, i.e., people who had the space to extend their household but were not dependent upon the income.
 
Ludlow’s Georgian High Noon
In his Ph.D. thesis, Property, Ownership and Improvement in Ludlow, historian David Lloyd tells us that from 1724 – 1770, Ludlow experienced ‘its Georgian high noon.’  The population was stable; glove making became the staple industry of the town; building continued steadily, with many elite residences in the town centre being rebuilt or re-fronted.  Turnpike Trusts were set up, and a coach service to and from London in 1763 facilitated movement.  Communications continued to improve and capital flowed more freely, with the first Ludlow bank appearing in 1787.
 
A Fashionable Town
In the C18 and C19 centuries Ludlow was a fashionable social centre. County families built elegant Georgian brick houses along the wide pavements of Broad Street, Mill Street and Dinham. Plans were even drawn up to build a crescent of homes on top of Whitcliffe just like Bath's Royal Crescent!

More Industry
Glove making had now become a major industry reaching a peak production of 650,000 gloves in 1814, other industry included light engineering, nail manufacture and textiles. The population grew rapidly in the early C19 century; many back-to-back buildings were constructed inside the disused town walls. After 1850 there was expansion east and north, into the new housing areas of Gravel Hill, Galdeford and New Road and further developments of the lower end of Corve Street.
The railway came to Ludlow in 1853 when Ludlow was connected to the Shrewsbury and Hereford line. New buildings such as Marston Mill were built near the railway station, and the livestock market and auction were, until 1995, on the site of present-day Tesco.
 
Slump
For a significant number of the poorest households, subletting was often vital as an extra means of acquiring a living.  Innholders and glovers featured consistently as hosts, whilst the number of working male and female glovers is particularly significant for this was a trade which encouraged numerous poorer people to settle in C19 Ludlow.  An 1811 guide book commented that the trade was ‘undoubtedly beneficial to the town at large, because a great number of the persons employed in sewing gloves might otherwise probably be under the necessity of requiring parochial assistance.’
By 1798 the number of Ludlow gentry had dropped by more than 50%; those who did reside in Ludlow depended increasingly on investments and urban properties, in Ludlow and elsewhere.  A few elite houses were erected but the main thrust of building was to provide low status houses, many of them along the back of burgages.  Although the prevailing ambiance was one of gentility, a high proportion of residents were classed as poor.
The trade slump after the Napoleonic wars in 1815 saw periods of chronic industrial depression, greater strain on the system of poor relief, increased food prices and more unemployment.  Radical ideas emerged, and with the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 came a period of intense political activity. 
The 1831 Census recorded Ludlow’s population as 5,232, and the 1835 Municipal Reform Act caused the Corporation to be replaced by an elected Borough Council.  The character of the town began to change, with an increasing population, fewer resident gentry and gentry lodgers, and growing areas of poverty and hardship.  The New Union Workhouse was built at the junction of New Road and Gravel Hill in 1836, and by 1865/66, Ludlow had seventeen common lodging houses, all in the working-class areas of the town. 
To find work, many men had to go ‘on the tramp’, resulting in scores of workers looking for weekly or even overnight lodging in Ludlow.  At the northern, lower end of Corve Street a number of households took in lodgers.  The 1871 Census implied that Nos. 63 and 72 had become common lodging houses, whilst in 1881, 11 lodgers were noted in No. 72.
 
Revival
Ludlow’s economic boom years had been in the C18 and early C19 when glove making was at its peak; whilst tanning had been an essential part of this success, it inevitably resulted in noxious manufacturing zones and less desirable housing, notably in the lower end of Corve Street.   By the C20, Ludlow had been described by Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, CBE, as ‘probably the loveliest town in England with its hill of Georgian houses ascending from the river Teme to the great tower of the cross-shaped church, rising behind a classic market building’, had 500 listed buildings, and more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other town in the country.

 

The Parish church of St. Laurence - the Cathedral of the Marches.

Ludlow Castle.

The Broadgate.

Ludlow Palmers depicted in the Palmers' Window in St. John's Chapel in St. Laurence's church.

Edward IV (1442-83) re-established the Council of Wales in the Marches.

Wealthy dyers lived and worked in Corve Street, alongside the river.

Until 1717, No. 8 Corve Street was a tenement where tanning took place. From 1788, glover James Davies (d.1832) and his mother lived here in what was almost certainly then this fine Georgian fronted property.

Ludlow Assembly Rooms. The Public Rooms were opened on 2 July 1840 with Ludlow Races Ball, a highlight of the social season.

Glove making was a major industry for Ludlow in the late C18 and early C19.

Back buildings in Green Dragon Yard, off Lower Corve Street.

Now part of Ludlow Community Hospital in Gravel Hill, the Ludlow Union Workhouse was designed by local architect Matthew Stead and opened in April 1839.

The Merchant House in Lower Corve Street was owned by Shaun Hill and was the first Michelin-starred restaurant in Ludlow.