Ludlow_2


Page 2.

Ludlow was also a planed town. Many medieval towns were similarly the result of deliberate acts of creation by landowners. A patron would attempt to fund a town as a specialised center of manufactures and trade, where the products of different farming areas and of non-agricultural activities could be exchanged, and would hope to profit from the rest of properties let to merchants and from market tolls.
Planned medieval towns were usually laid out with 'burgage plot', long narrow strips with a building at one end fronting on to a main street, extending to a 'back lane' which acted as a service road. Sometimes such plots were laid out along one main street, or sometimes on a grid pattern. At Ludlow , Old street, Broad Street and Mill Street are surviving main street of the grid, and Raven Lane, Bell Lane and Brand Lane the remaining service roads and cross lanes.

Planned towns usually had a wide market place where temporary stalls could be set up. Sometimes's such temporary stalls became permanent buildings, and the open market place became a maze of alleys and buildings without gardens or yards, as has happened in the area between the castle and the bull ring at Ludlow.
Ludlow market hall 1892 Corve street

The Market Hall.
Built in 1887 it was described by Nicolas Pevsner as 'Ludlow's bad luck.. There is nothing that could be said in favour of its fiery brick or useless Elizabethan detail'. The market hall was demolished in 1986. and the space today is used for market stalls.

Corve Street 1910.
Corve Street leads north, and was the main road to Shrewsbury. In fact, as a route way Corve Street, and Old street into which it leads to the south, may well have followed an old Roman, or even earlier, route linking with a ford across the River Teme.
The Bullring 1892 Buter Cross 1923

The Bull Ring 1892
All the buildings in this picture have since been stripped to their timber framing. Especially interesting is the shop on the left; it is now revealed as a medieval toll-booth for people coming to trade in the market, and is therefore known as the Tolsey.

The Butter Cross.
The Butter Cross was built in 1744 at a cost of £1,000 as a Town Hall, and ever since it has dominated the view along Broad Street. It served as a butter market, hence its name. The upper floor was used for a school-The Blue Coat Charity School.

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