Models, photos and more are about to go on display in Ludlow, telling the story of the two huge market halls that once filled Market Square. We chat to the man that made them.
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00:00This is the model of the Ludlow Town Hall that came in 1704. It was a hundred feet long
00:08approximately. I have no real reference for size because I've built this from photographs. It was
00:15open market, it was covered but open, but above it had a big office space, presumably for council
00:24dealings. I don't know. I have no plans of this at all. I've built this from a photograph, that's
00:33all, so the dimensions might be plus or minus, who knows. So it's the best effort I can do to
00:42provide you with what looks like Ludlow Town Hall 1704 and it was knocked down in 1886 to make way
00:52for the bigger version. Was it knocked down purely because they thought we'll have something bigger
00:56and better or do we know, like, was there an issue with the building at the time and it, you know,
01:00it was crumbling anyway sort of thing? I have a story, I don't know if it's true, but it was
01:05dilapidated in 1886 and the people, it was actually going to be knocked down presumably anyway because
01:13it was dilapidated, but what dilapidated in them terms means I don't really know. Yeah, yeah.
01:20And that building that came along and replaced this, tell us a little bit about that one that
01:25you do know about it and why it's not there anymore. The new building that replaced this in
01:321887 was by a chap called Cheers who was a well-known architect and he put a proposal
01:40along with others, it was an open competition to have a town hall, a new one, and he won.
01:48He also built Hereford and I believe he built others and many other buildings as well in the
01:55country up until 1915, I think, when he died. He was a well-known architect. Yeah. The building
02:04itself was a light years up on this because it had a covered market, it had council offices,
02:12a mayor's parlour, a stage, a dance floor that was sprung, beautiful dance floor,
02:19it had ladies and gents changing rooms, it had a beautiful curved ceiling, it was a wonderful
02:27panelled ceiling as well. It also had a feature which was a horse, a full-sized horse that was
02:34in the building and this became an icon and if people in Ludlow said I'm going to the horse,
02:44it meant they were going to the town hall. Okay. And you'll see in the model, the model of that,
02:51there is the horse up above the main entrance on the upper floor. So why is that building
02:58no longer there? What happened then? The building over the years was neglected
03:06and a lot of work was supposed to have been done through the years by the councils and it didn't
03:13and eventually it caught up with them and they said, this is to be believed or not,
03:19that it was going to catastrophically fall down at a moment's notice.
03:23So this model and the other one which is a giant, isn't it, 10 foot long, they're going to be
03:31forming part of an exhibition. Just tell us a bit about when that is, where it is and what will be
03:35included. The exhibition is going to be in the church, sorry in St Lawrence's Church, Ludlow,
03:42from the 17th of February 2025 until the 2nd of March, two weeks and that will be
03:52this model, the early one, 1704, the model that followed it, 1886 to 1986
04:02and all of my photographs, as many as I can get in the space which gives details of
04:10the history of these buildings, what I know of it.