A dominant instruction in late-medieval Ludlow was the Palmer's Guild, founded in the mid-13th century. This was a religious guild which originally endowed three chaplains to pray for the dead and in honour of the cross. The guild prospered, employing eight priests, owning many properties in the town, and attracting members from all over the southern half of Britain.

it was responsible for much of the late-medieval adornment of the church of St. Laurence, for the music in the church, for the founding of such charitable institutions as almshouses and, from the early 15th century, for the administration of a school. The guild was dissolved in 1551, when its property and many of its functions passed to the town corporation.

From the mid-15th century until 1689 Ludlow Castle was the main centre of administration for the Council in the Marches and Wales, a commission set up the Crown to dispense justice in the turbulent Borderland region. The trade generated by Ludlow's role as an administrative centre, together with the flourishing cloth trade, made it a most prosperous town in the late medieval and Tudor periods.

St Laurence Church. The Normans may have settled around their castle, but the first settlement on the hilltop was probably near the site of the present church. In 1812 it was felt that the graveyard was overcrowded, and an alternative was then established in 1824 beside Corve Street.	The tree on the right has been replaced with cherry trees on either side of the west door. These were planted to commemorate A E Houseman, the poet most famous for his volume of poems 'A Shropshire Lad' He died in 1936 and his ashes are buried in the church wall just to the right of this tree.
The High Altar of St Laurence Church, the church's greatest treasure are its carved misericords, some of them depicting scenes of medieval life, are in fact very funny.	The view from the church tower is breathtaking in all directions. Here we are looking towards the castle.

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