Ludlow Ledger (Issue #3)

ISSUE 3 – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 – FREE

Ludlow’s golden boy of geology Glass sculpting Behind the scenes at Rickards London to Ludlow with Aubrey King-size figures from the Furniture Scheme Organic living Holidaying in Borth Riding for the disabled

“What David and Rick hadn’t realised was that their grandfather had been harbouring pieces from an old WWI aircraft in his shed.” on the day I meet David, a man with an extremely busy schedule, the sun is hazy and the Shropshire weather muggy and stifling. I spot him immediately, a tall, rangy, elegant man wearing a rather natty Indiana Jones hat and a twinkle in his eye.

As we talk over coffee, his energy and enthusiasm is boundless. Despite the fact that his daughter is due to give birth at any moment, he spends hours with me, poring over photographs, taking me on a whirlwind tour to see the nearly finished plane and talking at a hugely entertaining rate of knots about everything from early cars and experimental technology to his encounters with aerobatic pilots.

David’s passion for aircraft began at a very early age – his mother used to delight in recalling how, in his pram, he was always pointing at the planes going overhead. From there he graduated to Airfix kits before going on to building a microlight with his brother, Rick. Since then, he’s built and flown hang gliders and light aircraft, become the chairman of the BMAA (The British Microlight Aircraft Association) and was, until recently, the editor of Microlight Flying Magazine.

Building his grandfather’s plane though was always going to be a deeply personal and challenging project. With David based in

Shropshire, Rick in Worcestershire and friend Theo Willford in Dorset, the job has been a huge undertaking and has seen them travel all over the world (via the US and New Zealand) to make their dream come true. As David confesses, “It’s more than a labour of love, it’s been an obsession.”

David was 33 when his grandfather died and, like the rest of the family, he was more than familiar with tales of great exploits during WW1 from regular visits to his grandparents, who lived just half an hour away from the family home.

Continued on page 20 >

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Contents 4 Daring a pint or two with Aubrey at The Apple Tree, Onibury LOCAL ICON 5 Dr Thomas Lloyd: putting Ludlow on the international geology map what’s been going on 6-7 Marching against Monsanto, Ozzie’s award and the Queen’s Cottages LETTERS 8 Thankfully nearly all favourable – singing our praises TALK OF THE TOWN 9 A totally different town it is today, so says Cath and Eileen TRAVEL 10 PUB Chat

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“When Mum spoke, it would be in the piping ‘posh’ voice she used when trying to create a good impression – what would have been her telephone voice, if we’d had a telephone”

12-14 Investigating Rickards ironmongers, floor-by-floor, cobweb-by-cobweb PROFILE 16-18 Amanda Brisbane Glass: not blowing glass and knowing how to knit COVER STORY... continued 20-21 Locals build a WW1 plane from bits found in their grandfather’s shed FINDING LUDLOW 22-23 BEHIND THE SCENES

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“The connection between humans and animals is often profound, yet the link between man and horse has been with us for over 6,000 years”

SPORT

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More than string and pram wheels – as our 35mph soapboxers prove

Editor’s notes, hello again Some time ago I found a small dog loitering outside my house – free of a collar and very friendly. I scooped him up, hunted down a spare lead and collar, and paced him up and down the road in hope his owner would spy him. I then took him on a pub-crawl, taking in The Unicorn, where he had biscuits galore, rolled around the floor with five other dogs and enjoyed the roaring open fire.

Nobody recognised him. Even a local vet drew a blank.

We then ventured into town – showing our faces in the Rose & Crown (on the way out getting into a fight with another dog) and The Church Inn (where he was cuddled by a lady for the entirety of my Wye Valley Bitter and was fed more biscuits by more drinkers).

All in all we’d been out and about walking and drinking for close on three hours, and he was clearly loving it. Thankfully he was very well behaved; sitting and staying when told, and in extremely good condition. He was grand company

and clearly no stray, obviously being missed by someone – but by whom?

Later, nearing home, my girlfriend and I spotted someone walking across the road, in front of our house, looking for something. He turned out to be the owner of what transpired to be a one-year-old Milo.

The most ridiculous part is that he lives two doors down. Milo had walked ten yards, before being scooped up me, lassoed with a lead, and carted into a number of pubs for a pint and a parade. I honestly think the owner thought I was joking about the adventure we’d had (though, at the time, I left out the bit about brawling outside the Rose & Crown). It was slightly stressful all the same – not knowing what to do with the lost dog but (the bit that struck me most) the embarrassment of not knowing one of my immediate neighbours (who could have so easily been elderly, living on their own and not feeling their best).

I’ve since made more of an effort to shake a few more hands.

The second embarrassment was that in my and Milo’s hour (or three) of need the town’s police station was shut. Studies have possibly shown that little happens requiring the reassuring arm of the law on a Sunday in Ludlow. Did you know that Monday is much the same?

Another thing you may be interested in is that you’re safe to walk the streets after 6pm, when anything threatening or concerning retires for the day between the days of Tuesday and Friday. And with a sluggish start of 10am I know the hours I’d pick if I were to do something perhaps frowned upon.

There’s even an hour-long lunch break from 2pm to 3pm which, I assume, ties conveniently with the hour that Ludlow’s criminal underworld sit down for a bite to eat.

Cheers, Jon Saxon ludlowledger@sonofsaxon.co.uk 07795 244060

Front cover image} courtesy of David Bremner | Editor’s notes image} courtesy of Richrd Stanton | Print} Newspaper Club, London

4 must remember that I’m younger, healthy, and the sap is rising. We go down the street and she pops into a door and I say to myself: is this a trap? I got in there. We got into a kiss, and I’m not going into details, but sadly she turned out to be a he. And I’m not going to tell you how I know but, forever the polite Englishman, I shook his hand and said: “Thank you but no thank you.”

I remember Raiders of the Lost Ark, over in Tunisia: Harrison had terrible stomach problems and kept getting caught short, so the carpenters made him a thunderbox and everywhere he went on location they took it with them. If you see the scene, you see him walking down this sandy street. The big Arab standing there with the scimitar and a turban... he came from Dulwich actually. And Harrison Ford had rehearsed it with the whip: snap snap, snap snap, then special effects to wrap it around the guy’s arm and take the sword away.

But he took the whip out and he went: snap... then reached down and grabbed his revolver and shot him.

Now, fortunately, Peter, acting the Arab, picked him up right away and dropped. Harrison rushed off out of shot to the thunder box around the back of the building. Well, the whole unit, the director and everyone just fell about.

had parts shot in Harrogate. When we were up there, come Saturday one of the sparks said: “Mr. gere, what are you doing tomorrow?” ...

“I don’t know, I guess I’m going to put my legs up or something.” ... “Well come with us down to the pub for a change.” So he came out in the unit car and we were in there playing darts. And we said: “Come on Richard, play.” He went: “Darts?

Darts!” He tried to throw these darts and we all fell about laughing.

The following March I was in West Hollywood for the Academy Awards. I was staying in Santa Monica – at Hotel Shangri-La – and the Ye olde King’s Head was down the road. It had eleven dartboards.

So I went down the road from the suite to the pub; and I looked and went: “Hold on!” ...there was bloody Richard. I caught his eye. “Alright Aubrey, I know what you’re going to say.” And the bartender said to me: “You know him?” ... “Yeah”, I said, “know him? I taught him.”

The interview with Aubrey also featured in edition #4 of Doghouse – the British pub magazine, which is produced by the team behind Ludlow Ledger. You can buy all six of the volumes from La Jewellery, No1 Parkway Mews (just off Corve Street) or order online: www.doghousemagazine.co.uk

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interviewed by } Jon Saxon | image } Richard Stanton

– PUB CHAT – In 1940 we lived in Islington. In those days there were barefoot children running about.... It was not a very pleasant place. I can remember my father sending me down to the local pub with a washstand jug, when we were running out of beer, entertaining.

On the way back I kept on stopping to dip into it. And, you know, even today, when I get the smell of beer, regardless really, it bring backs memories of then – being eight, I could hardly carry the thing.

Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to imbibe a number of ales in different countries; including a green one in South Africa. My time in the motion picture industry took me to a variety of exotic, cold, miserable, and excitingly-vulgar areas on location, and I am not ashamed to tell you that. Putting

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my job aside, my primary concern was: where can I get a drop of beer?

Over the years I’ve acquired what I believe they call – in vernacular company – a cultivated nose. It’s a nose that I trust. Sometimes I make a mistake, and tell the landlord to pour it back into the horse.

I was in 45 Commando, the Royal Marines, and saw some action. We lost a couple of guys too. We were in Syria on an exercise with the Americans and had a Sunday off, in Homs. Beautiful Roman ruins there. And the only alcohol they sold there was banana rum. We didn’t know it was rum at the time – it was sickly stuff, but it was a drink.

The young woman who served us was very, very attractive. So my boys said, “I think she’s got eyes for you sir”. And I said: “I know she has.” Anyhow, they peeled off into the street... and, to cut a long story short, she closed up and invited me to come down the street. Now you

LUDLoW LeDGeR | IssUe 2 |

IN 1946 The Automobile Association released the Touring Gazetter and Atlas of Great Britain. For your Five Shillings you received 275 pages, with regional references, facts and brief notes on architecture. For my £1 I’ve learnt that: “Samuel Butler wrote part of ‘Hudibras’ and Milton wrote ‘Comus’ and here it was first performed.”

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ORIGINALLY six Shillings and three Pence, this fourth edition Ordnance Survey from 1945 – studying The Forth, Clyde & Tay – was made mine from Ludlow market with a lone pound coin. Printed on clothbacked paper, it’s worth every penny: 1st edition worth £25.

5 Thomas Lloyd: doctor turned geologist

Ludlow legend remembered text } Liz Hyder | image } Bob McIntosh

– LOCAL ICON – THe Victorian era and the decade or so leading up to it was a true age of discovery – but more than that, it was an age of collectors.

While today we line our shelves with DVDs, vinyl or books, the Victorians collected rare creatures from their travels, gassed them, gutted them and stuffed them for display.

But it wasn’t just the wonders of the day that intrigued them. Ancient relics of the past – fossils – were inspiring a new generation of collectors and geologists, amateur and professional, to ask crucial questions. What exactly were these creatures found in the rocks? Where had they come from? When had they lived and how had they come to be preserved? Just how many shelves will I need to display my collection?

One of these amateur geologists with a keen interest in fossils was a Ludlow doctor, Thomas Lloyd, born in 1802. The son of an attorney (Henry Lloyd of the Broad gate) Dr Thomas Lloyd trained as a doctor in Edinburgh and played an important role, not just in geology, but also in Ludlow’s inaugural museum.

Along with Thomas Lewis, the then curate at Aymestry, Lloyd amassed a wealth of knowledge about the local area, collecting fossils and sharing ideas between a wider group of passionate amateur geologists.

By 1832, when the famed geologist Roderick Murchison visited Ludlow, Lloyd and Lewis were more than happy to share their expertise, and their work enabled Murchison to take his deductions further than ever before. Lloyd’s

collection of fossil fish from old red sandstone (a substance that was not supposed to contain fossils) along with Lewis’s systematically collated fossil shells and the notes on the strata that they were found in, enabled Murchison to work out an order for his Silurian system.

One of the most important time periods in the history of Earth (when life migrated from the sea into fresh water and onto land for the first time) had a structure.

The local amateur geologists were delighted. Lloyd even wrote to Murchison: “I am still warm with the enthusiasm I caught from you” – a rare glimpse into the excitement felt by the local group as their research and discoveries were taken to a higher level.

But Lloyd’s role did not end there.

In 1834 he made a hugely important discovery when he came across the, now famous, Ludlow Bone Bed in a small quarry just near Ludford.

The Ludlow Bone Bed represented terrestrial conditions and thus a fundamental change from the previous seascape to land.

With up to 14 species of Late Silurian fish fossilised in the rocks, the site became internationally renowned and, at the time, was believed to be the earliest occurrence of life on land. More recent work on the bone bed shows that Lloyd’s discovery was even more scientifically important than he had first thought, as the bed also contains charcoal fragments – the remains of fossil plants burnt in one of the earliest wildfires known to have taken place on the planet and then washed downstream after a violent thunderstorm. In recognition

of the importance of this area to scientific understanding, the site is now an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and the names of Ludlow and Whitcliffe are forever enshrined in geographical terms still used today.

While all this was happening, not only did Lloyd manage to balance his work as a doctor with his passion for geology, he also played a key role as one of the founders of Ludlow’s Natural History Society and its museum.

At the inaugural committee meeting on october 12th in 1833 (and we all know how much Ludlow loves a committee), Lloyd and Lewis were among nine men elected to run the Ludlow Natural History Society and Museum. Just a year later, there were 59 subscribing members to the society and the collection had already started with a collection of land and marine shells, minerals and “a few stuffed birds.”

Lloyd himself donated fossils to the collection in 1835 although possibly the best (and smelliest) donation that year was from Rev. Lewis Mrs Hamilton of Burwarton, fresh from her grand tour of Europe, who donated “lava and natural sulphur from Vesuvius.” .... The museum’s collection was soon bursting at the seams and Lloyd, as honorary curator, and his committee were tasked with finding more suitable premises. They raised money from investors and lo and behold Ludlow’s very own purposeplanned and ambitious Assembly Rooms were built. opening to the public in 1840 (albeit only one day a week) to a gush of enthusiastic local press, the building and its contents were a hit, although some of the collection inside was clearly rather haphazard.

That same year, there were only around 45 museums in the whole of the UK – and Ludlow had one of them. Not bad for a small town in the Marches.

Yet, just a year after the grand opening, Thomas Lloyd left Ludlow and its committees behind and decamped to Aberystwyth. In less than a decade, he’d helped secure the town’s geological fame, been a founder member of Ludlow’s very own museum and been a part of the push to build the Assembly

Rooms. His legacy is enormous and, although he can’t be singlehandedly credited for any of the above, the part he played shouldn’t be underestimated.

The museum in Ludlow still opens its doors to the public (and on more than just one day a week – it’s well worth a visit if you haven’t popped in for a while) and continues its geological tradition with thousands of specimens from the local area. Ludlow Assembly Rooms too continues to dominate the market square, although as an arts and community venue rather than as a museum. Alas, there’s not a clear record of what happened to Lloyd after he moved to

Aberystwyth, apart from a record of his death in 1849 aged just 47. We can’t be sure whether he continued as a doctor and an amateur geologist in his new home on the Welsh coast, but I like to think of him strolling along the beaches, magnifying glass in hand and thinking fondly of his time in Ludlow.

And, if nothing else, Lloyd and his contribution to Murchison’s Silurian era can now be remembered by new generations as a bright green creature from Earth’s ancient past thanks to the popularity of Doctor Who. Now that’s what I call a legacy.

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Marching, organising, debating and awarding

Since issue 2 of Ludlow Ledger text } Jon Saxon

– PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE – AS this paper is published every other month, much of the local news that matters most is considered rather dated by the time we finally groan into action. Behind the times we may well be, in terms of publishing dates, but we could not print this issue without mentioning the controversial words ‘Rocks green supermarket proposal’ – which has caused some concern for many locals. Ludlow does not need another supermarket1. Not only is it a ridiculous proposal, it’s also got Simon Hoare’s face all over it:

google him if you don’t yet know what he’s all about. Avoid at all costs, and stand as tall and shout as loud as you see fit. Don’t sit back and hope someone else will do all of this for you.

De grey’s2 owners have recently been appeasing the market towners by announcing that, not only are they retaining the landmark black and gold Broad Street sign (denoting De grey’s), they will also continue serving pastries out front. I know the town applauds; I’ve heard it for myself. But before we clap too long, we must remember the actual

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quote, appearing in a local daily paper: “We’re going to continue the tea room theme at the front, with a bakery and deli, pretty much in the same style.” great – yet another deli. Just what Ludlow needs – next to charity shops and estate agents.

The suggestion of “theme” and the phrase “pretty much in the same style” should have us all recoiling, not cheering. It’s still a bad choice for the town (more so for its chain status, regardless of how well they’ve kitted the place out) making it a miserable fate really for what was, perhaps, one of the town’s biggest assets. You can’t hold on to everything, and if it was such a fantastic business then why has it gone – people don’t just throw away money-making ventures, do they?

I’d also suggest that the town as a whole could have done more about its future (if they really thought it needed saving as the tea shop it was) – after all, communities up and down the country are doing similar things with their pubs rather than mourning the loss.

Of course some things have to change, even here in Ludlow, but a national food chain can’t honestly be for the better – going to show

@LUDLoWLeDGeR

that no matter how many cardboard displays shop-owners quietly prop up in their front windows, declaring their devout independence, it’s quite clear that we are losing both the battle and the war – badly.

Yet we have the town folk of Ludlow back-patting one another for a half success of sign retention and some cakes. Call me cynical, but I say it’s what De grey’s owners Tasty Plc had planned all along – a period of time putting the modernage cat amongst the historical pigeons, before throwing a few crumbs of compromise the town’s way. Left vacant with cobwebs may seem a better option, if their Wildwood restaurant turns out to be the foodie equivalent of its facing neighbour Fat Face, or WH Smith around the corner.

But there again, I’ve gawked long and hard through the open front doors, whilst work’s been underway – and squinted through the side windows, seeing it surprisingly similar (out back at least) so, maybe, I’ve got the wrong end of the stick and will be one of the first to savour and salute its revival under the Tasty Plc flag, once the doors fling wide open again – I

guess they’ll be ajar by the time you’re reading this.

Keeping with De grey’s; Charlton Arms Hotel’s Cedric Bosi and his brother Claude have teamed up to create Bosi Accommodation and, in doing so, have snapped up what was known as De grey’s Rooms (De grey’s Hotel as it was once called in The Telegraph). From what I gather, after a brief chat with Cedric, is that they are keeping the nine en-suite rooms as is and plan to re-open by September 8th as The Townhouse Ludlow: thetownhouseludlow.co.uk It’s about time Ludlow upped its offerings of accommodation too – with the Travel Lodge being what you’d expect and the Feathers Hotel in need of a rethink (a more historical night might, possibly, be spent on any one of the park benches dotted around the town).

New holiday accommodation has also popped up in Lower galdeford, in the shape of The Queens Cottages3 – reshaping outbuildings (one time stabling block and, throughout WW2, employed as a gas-decontamination centre) into three semi-catering holiday

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“4.04am, and only the stone cold eyes of the ancient castle brood protective over the dozy town.”

The moment author } Bert Wells

– POETRY – THE blackbird broke the dark silence of night to herald the awakening day, while the patter of paws on wet tarmac splattered and tattered a rhythm sweeter than any alarm clock.

4.04 am, and only the stone cold eyes of the ancient castle brood protective over the dozy town.

The avian orchestra in full swing now the light drizzles as the grey cloak of daylight creeps and sweeps over the eastern horizon, while shadowed hills lighten and seem to grow in contentment, and lengthen.

No artist’s brush could stroke the changing light of this arrangement, drawn out by some unseen hand.

No traffic rattle the now wet road, the traffic of my thoughts are willed still as my mind breathes in a new birth of day, undressing the night time dreams to recede into forgotten memory.

My chocolate brown companion and I greet wet faced the day that smiles at us, winking in self satisfaction.

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apartments. I’ve had a snoop around and the far-end let, up a flight of steps, gets my sleepover vote – even if it is the smallest of the three. The inspiring part is that the breakfast bit, to go along with the bed, doesn’t come from the cooking quarters of The Queens but, by handing over a voucher, is served up over the road at Baker’s Café. There are vouchers for other aspects too – showing a refreshing approach and a commitment to other businesses.

Celebrating a commitment to the local community, Rockspring Community Centre recently hosted the ‘Most Improved garden’ competition – in which a prize was awarded to last issue’s pigeon racer, Andrew ‘Ozzie’ Orsborn4.

The judges commented: “one of the gardens was very unusual.

Andrew of Sandpits Avenue had not only worked on his small front garden but had decided to develop a piece of land outside his garden, which apparently used to be used as a dumping ground for rubbish.

The area is now a smooth green lawn with a flower-bed running all along the outside edge of his fence, with other small beds cut into the

grass. It looks wonderful and is full of colour and texture.” ozzie later said: “Life isn’t just about doing things for yourself, but it’s about doing things for other people.”

Ludlow needs an army of ozzies.

Moving forward we have the annual Bucknell Show – September 6th: thebucknellshow.co.uk – if you fancy getting out of Ludlow for a bit; hosting WI cakes and firewalking. The following weekend is the 20th Food Festival in Ludlow (check p11 to save £1 off entry price). And octoberwise ... there’s a daylong event on the 4th – showcasing a number of national and local historians and authors; examining Ludlow’s role in the Civil War. organised by the Conservation Trust for St Laurence, the event includes tours of the town’s medieval aspects and St Laurence’s 15th-century architecture. This is followed, from the 20th october until 15th November, with Lucy Jones’ exhibition at the Silk Top Hat gallery5 in Quality Square.

If you’re lost for something to do with that saved ‘festival pound’,

then you could donate it to Oxfam Ludlow, who are raising funds to help provide water pumps in the grounds of West African schools – supplying clean water for drinking and washing. At the time of going to press they’d raised £325 of their £1670 target. Help them get closer by hunting down their counter tin and dropping in that quid. If you’ve a little extra to give, and fancy donating a little closer to home, then you could contribute to the Ledger tin found outside La Jewellery in Parkways’ Mews. okay, at the last tally it had raised £1, but three papers had being picked up in the process, showing that folk care about this paper’s survival – which is funding by adverts (and selffunded when not) and wouldn’t be what it is without the incredible generosity of its contributors.

March Against Monsanto6 took place in Birmingham recently.

To find out how “Monsanto has become a pop cultural bogeyman, the face of corporate evil” and why 12 people from Ludlow headed along to campaign against the gMo giant – it’s well worth reading the following piece in the

Modern Farmer: http://tiny.cc/ modernfarmergMo The Ludlow Cancer Support group7 has recently been set up to provide a much-needed sociable and welcoming environment where members can find additional strength to cope with their situation. “our hope is that those attending will look forward to meeting other members, enjoy one another’s company, and gain strength from each other,” says its chairman, Rosemary Wood. Meetings will be held on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month, from 11am to 12.45pm, in the Parish Centre in St Peter’s (the whopping Romanesque 1930s church on Henley Road, behind Fred’s). We also learned that many local businesses have got involved, and the group hope more will follow – either by sponsoring the group or offering complimentary services.

Membership is free to those who have been diagnosed, regardless of how long ago the diagnosis was made – so why not pop along to their first meeting on Friday 12th of September: ludlowcancersupport.org

THE QUEENS 113 Lower Galdeford, Ludlow, SY8 1RU 01584 879177 thequeensludlow.com thequeensludlow@live.co.uk

Family run freehouse with an emphasis on good local produce and real ales, situated in the heart of historic Ludlow town

THE QUEENS COTTAGES Our accommodation is new for 2014 – three apartments converted from the old stables in the courtyard to the rear of the pub ––––

Good Beer Guide 2013 & 2014

Images on p6-7} 1 – Blackfriars Property Group, 2 – Frits Goosen, 3 – Jane Vaughan, 4 – Michael Martin, 5 – Lucy Jones, 6 – Patrick Karvounis

8 A small selection of your emails, letters, postcards and social posts from Facebook and Twitter

Readers’ letters images } Richard Stanton

– CORRESPONDENCE – DeLIGHTeD to pick up a copy of your Ledger for June and May. One thing that did strike me about Ludlow itself, on a recent visit: what an asset to the town the castle is. Historically important and in a commanding position, it has a lot of potential. Would it be possible to restore the walk around the outside of the castle? Like Richmond in Yorkshire, Ludlow has stretches of path which are impassable: too slanty, slippy and risky to traverse.

Is there a local accountant who can enquire about grants from the National Lottery for local amenities? And, if so, include some re-building of the path, some hard landscaping, new seats, and extra drainage to protect the walls from further deterioration? Finally, some pruning of the very full trees now, would protect the walls from damage and open up the clear outline of the castle again against the sky. Well done Ludlow; the quietness and beauty of the castle is a view worth opening up to a wide appreciative audience.

JUST wanted to say how much I’m enjoying the Ludlow Ledger.

As well as the content and concept of the paper, it is also a pleasure to hold, thanks to the design, size of images and even the lovely title typeface.

I’ve only moved to the area relatively recently and have had several (old) people say to me, “Ludlow’s not what it used to be,” with a shake of their head. If it is indeed changing, then it seems to be for the better from what I can see and your paper is just one example of this. Well done and thanks.

Chris Snow Cockshutford

---------------------------------ConGRATULATIonS on Ludlow Ledger. For presenting a more textured view of Ludlow and for getting it out the door – a major achievement.

I was born in 1971 and lived in Ludlow until I was 18, before heading to glasgow and then London. My parents still live in the town and I come back a few times a year. As a result, I’ve seen,

at a distance, how the town has developed from a rural backwater to Michelin-starred gastro-paradise.

I loved your Sandpits recollection, in issue 1, about being overtaken by a sofa – and remember another one: It was about some kids on the piece of grassland at the bottom of Sheet Road (and therefore below Sandpits) just before the railway bridge heading into town. Cars coming down the hill know they have to brake and change into 1st or 2nd to make the tight turn under the bridge.

Knowing this, some kids fashioned a rocket launcher out of an empty pipe with a brick in the end and stood on the grassland. When they saw a car at the top of the hill, they lit a firework and popped it in the pipe and then tracked the car as it came down the hill. If the driver saw this they were effectively ‘trapped’ – they couldn’t accelerate away as they had to decelerate to make the turn under the bridge. It’s one of my favourite Ludlow stories.

Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck with Ludlow Ledger – presenting multiple sides to the town and revealing the parts light rarely

Geoff Woodhall Preston Anyone up for making a few enquiries?

---------------------------------BeTTeR than the Journal and Advertiser put together. Well done!

“I cut this out to send to a friend e living in th Shetlands”

Beverley Orsborn Ludlow

---------------------------------I WAS holiday in my old stamping ground of Shropshire, recently, and picked up a copy of Ludlow Ledger on a visit to the town. I just wanted to thank you and all of your team for an excellent and thoughtprovoking read.

It’s rare, these days, to get a free newspaper containing so many wellwritten and knowledgeable articles and news snippets. It really gets to the core of the side of Ludlow that isn’t normally promoted, and it works well because of this. Keep up the good work.

Chris Cattrall Yorkshire

---------------------------------PICKeD Ledger up in Fred’s. What a fantastic read – all about Ludlow and its people. Unlike the other paper for Ludlow, which writes about Telford.writes about Telford.

Di Pound Ludlow

We recently spent a wonderful weekend in your beautiful Ludlow.

While there I picked up a copy of the first issue of Ludlow Ledger.

In this paper (on page 4) was an article about a local gentleman who was offering his friend dog treats, pretending they were nuts. I cut this out to send to a friend living in the Shetlands, who once played the same practical joke on me. Unfortunately it has gone missing in the post. I wondered if there was any way at all to obtain a copy. It would make my friend’s day.

Mrs Mary Davis Nottingham You too can become a subscriber to the Ludlow Ledger, from £1.25 per issue. Full details on page 19.

LUDLoW LeDGeR | IssUe 3 |

shines on, is a valuable service.

Also, encouraging people to reflect a little on the town and its direction, is a great contribution to town life.

Jonathan Wise London

---------------------------------I WoULD like to say that the Ledger is a fantastic crucible for creative life in Ludlow.

Simon Bolton Ludlow

---------------------------------GReAT journal, which I discovered in the Rose & Crown.

Well done.

I’ve read your interesting article about graeme Kidd, in issue 1, and would like to know more about him, please. graeme might be the kind of local hero I’m seeking for my next book. The idea is still just that and if and when I proceed I would want to look at lives of folk like graeme who seems to have meant much to Ludlow in recent times.

Richard Dobson Somerset Contact our sub: sally@nka.co.uk I ReCenTLY discovered your article about the Mod Lang record shop. The article was written and expressed well the feelings of many record dealers, driven by enthusiasm, frustration, etc. I am however upset by your suggestion I sell records scratched and damaged at £10. Possibly this is the case with a rare album of high value in less than good condition. This is not our normal pricing practice and I often give damaged stock away to a good customer.

I do not mind references to the untidy aspect of the shop particularly as we carry out time consuming button badge wholesale activities from there and make our money that way. The records have always been, until recently, a less important product. I do strongly feel you have represented our pricing and selling practices in a way to put customers off. I have customers visiting from all over the country and abroad, who can attest to our fair trading practices. Your article, in relation to my company, is far from helpful in these difficult times.

We have been established nearly 40 years and must be doing something right, but readers of your comments will do us no good and indeed harm our reputation.

Terry Thomas Kidderminster If you have something to say about the content within these pages, then please do send your letters, postcards or emails to: Ludlow Ledger Hillkroft Bromfield Road Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1DW --------

ludlowledger@sonofsaxon.co.uk

@LUDLoWLeDGeR

The thought of potentially oppressing sales (as you say in these difficult times) and of a vinyl shop no less, fills me with an unpleasant feeling.

The way you trade has never personally put me off spending endless hours, and money, with you over the last 28 years: the last visit buying a T-Connection album which I remember you having a personal connection to. I do wholly agree with your disappointment and consider my pricing reference a bit cackhanded. I could carry on, as I

know you’re pretty concerned about the potentially negative impact this may well have on your much-loved shop. I should have mentioned the sea of floor vinyl and left it that. But just like my last buying episode at Mister Tees, I got a bit carried away.

You can find Mister Tees on the left-hand side of Horsefair’s Blackwell Street, heading out of Kidderminster, opposite the Peacock pub: 01562 515291.

---------------------------------AS a regular visitor to your delightful town, I must say it was with great interest that I read your first edition of the Ledger during a very rainy afternoon spent in the Rose & Crown.

Chris Wakefield Norwich

---------------------------------QUICK note to say how much I enjoyed your first edition of Ludlow Ledger. A proper local publication with some really interesting original copy, as opposed to the usual regurgitated national-agency rubbish used to sell local advertising.

We’ve been pushing it to as many of our customers as possible and the feedback has been very positive.

Will Bentley Ludlow

---------------------------------SeRIoUSLY impressed by the look and content of Ludlow Ledger – picked up in taxi company’s waiting room, next to Shrewsbury station. Can we have one in Shrewsbury please?

Pitchford Estate Nr Dorrington I have the feeling Ledger works because I happen to live here, know the town, its business and its people. Not yet ready to move.

9 tale of two shops

Churchill House conversations

Bean thinking

A rather different Ludlow

text } Chloe Alexander

interviews } Jon Saxon | images } Richard Stanton

– MY LOCAL SHOP – FRom mindless to mindful in one hour. First I’m in a supermarket, buying ingredients for banana and walnut loaf. I watch items speed past, so swift, blank and (despite the checkout girl’s best endeavours to be friendly) unremarkable. It’s a matter of minutes between my placing items towards her and placing them into the car.

Things missing from my list make it necessary to do a trawl around the little shops of Ludlow, ending up in Broad Bean for more walnuts. Immediately I’m struck by the difference in price between where I had just been and the remaining nuts in Broad Bean’s canister. Tim gaudin explained the difference “Apparently a bad frost has affected the harvest.”

Mentally transported to a walnut grove somewhere in China, I begin to see a wider picture. “The price has increased four-fold since we took on this shop in 2009. The price of apricots has trebled in three months.” I realise, with a jolt, that I am seeing the directness of their price affected by the natural vagaries of weather, pitched against some artificiallyreduced price brought on by a supermarket with the buying power to stockpile and wait and monitor the market.

“It’s easy,” I say, “to assume the price difference is the small independent ripping off the customer but isn’t it the raw reality that there is no buffer zone for you?” Tim smiles and ruefully adds: “We’ll see about this bad frost.” Tim points out, however, that many of their prices are lower than the chains. Not only that, but his shop gives back around 50 percent of its economy to the local community by endeavouring to source locally – honey, milk, salads and the like. As he says, the supermarkets of Ludlow probably only give back 15 percent through employment of local people. our conversation lasts no more than five minutes, as he pours all of the walnuts into a bag for me, charges slightly under as I’ve helped him by clearing the box and I, in turn, offer him more than the price and tell him to put the change into the charity tin. My walk home is full of thought about local, national and global economies.

As the dark clouds of supermarket development loom over this town I decide that my conversation with Tim – and indeed all conversations in all local shops – is a price worth paying.

I’Ve really enjoyed my life; still do – if I’m allowed. I enjoy every minute. I have some good memories of Ludlow, but Ludlow’s changed: you don’t know half the folks anymore: you don’t see the people like you used to, do you?

My dad’s dad was a window cleaner and my mum worked in De grey’s. oh it was busy. I used to go to De grey’s for my dinner – of course I took a crowd with me; she had to pay for all of them.

Everywhere I went, it was “Hello Cath, how’s your mum?” Then I joined the Baptist church, where I met Eileen.

Nothing’s ever held me back. I used to love watching the Bradleys fighting. It was very common, when they got drunk. It was great fun then. I wasn’t a great drinker but just wanted atmosphere: the New Inn was the best. I used to go to the Half Moon – the Bridge too, Portcullis, Star and garter and The Raven. I can remember The

greyhound too. When you think about it: there were a lot of pubs in Ludlow: there’s no good pubs anymore. But it’s not the pubs, it’s the folks that goes in them.

I always remember telling my husband to go out for a drink, while I sat home listening to my records.

He came back later on ... he said: “Don’t ever send me out again.” I said: “Why, whatever happened?” … He was waiting to go into this football meeting, having a pint when, all of a sudden, he was stood by the window and a chair went out, then a table. He said: “‘I’m off home, ta-ra; I ain’t staying here.”

The Raven wasn’t always rough.

It was really nice when Vince Pike was there; after, it went all, you know, down.

I love blood; oh I do. When my kids got cut I used to love doing it.

My husband used to go miles out of the way. And I love injections: I don’t know why.

Cath

THeRe were three shops in Sandpits when I was a girl: Tom Sankey’s, Clifford More’s and my mum and dad’s shop (JL Briggs grocery Shop) at the end of Sandpits Avenue. My mum and dad were very popular. People said of the fairness in which they were treated – looking after them in times of emergencies.

I did work there, but only when forced to – usually because my dad wanted to watch the television.

The best job I had was working at the BBC, out at Woofferton, as an Admin Assistant – I worked at the BBC for 32 years I think.

We had a good community spirit in Sandpits; excellent in fact, but it changed over the years – mainly due to the war years; everything changed. I remember planes going over the shop in the wartime. There was a big party in Sandpits, when the war ended – we decorated the hedgerows and put out tables.

Everybody came out.

I played hop scotch in the road: there wasn’t many cars back then and there were the gypsies before the houses were built in Clee View – making pegs and selling them around the houses.

The funniest part of life in Sandpits was when folks got drunk.

It happened a lot. We didn’t have any pubs in Sandpits, so our nearest pub was The Nelson but I never spent anytime there.

My dad grew roses and kept bees as well; I remember him with his hood on and my mother being shut in the house because the bees were swarming. I can remember my dad going on holiday to Aberystwyth and he had to be rushed to the emergency tent where he had an injection; he nearly died from a sting he had at home. He wasn’t put off but the bees kept swarming; a difficult time for the shop so he had to give them up.

Eileen

“We’re 150 years old” We wish to thank our customers for supporting our Little Independent Boutique

Providing hardware and advice since 1864

‘Hares’ No1, The Parkway, Corve Street – 01584 876178

www.lajewellery.co.uk

6-7 Bull Ring, Ludlow, SY8 1AE – 01584 872934

www.rickardsofludlow.co.uk

10 30mph in a Ford Pop, from Dodmore to Borth

A Ludlow holiday text and image } Ron Powell

– TRAVEL – LIKe many youngsters growing up in Ludlow in the 1960s, my summer holidays were one-day events. And like many in the town, my family chose to spend that day in Borth, on the west Wales coast above Aberystwyth.

Never mind what it looked like in the recent TV series Hinterland, in my mind’s eye Borth is a tiny village, stretching along the landward side of a straight road, beyond which lie several hundred yards of tall sand dunes, a wide golden beach and the freezing Irish Sea. Early on the chosen day each year, Dad and Mum (Ben and Cath), younger brother Brian and I would leave Dodmore in our little black Ford Popular to take the scenic route over the Welsh mountain passes. Despite the early start, we never reached Borth till late morning. There were two main reasons for this.

Firstly, we never exceeded 30 miles an hour, even on the most open of roads, not that there were many of those between Ludlow and Borth. As a result, we could end up leading quite a convoy through mid Wales, Dad proudly double de-clutching to get the Ford Pop into first gear on the steeper hills, the first hints of steam wafting from under the bonnet.

The steam was the second reason for our late arrival. As it happened every year, a wiser family would have been prepared, but not us. our

orange squash would have to be thrown away so that its bottle could be filled with water from a nearby stream. This was poured, hissing, into the steaming radiator, but not before Dad had scalded himself.

When we eventually arrived, Brian and I would want to head straight for the sea but Mum and Dad would need a drink, so we’d stop in one of the roadside cafés.

While drinking one, two, maybe even three cups of tea, they’d strike up excruciating conversation with the waitresses and other customers.

When Mum spoke, it would be in the piping ‘posh’ voice she used when trying to create a good impression – what would have been her telephone voice, if we’d had a telephone. We clutched our buckets and spades, looked at our feet swinging beneath the café chairs and prayed for the embarrassment to end.

After what seemed like hours, they’d lead us across the road and let us run off through the dunes to the sea. A few minutes later, they’d appear and set up aluminium foldaway chairs at the top of the beach under the sand dunes. In between frequent forays to the cafés for more tea, there they’d sit for the rest of the day.

I remember very little concession to the fact that they were on holiday, or on a beach. Mum would take off her coat but not her headscarf, and Dad would take off his pullover and roll up his shirt sleeves. There was no further dressing down; in fact,

because of the strong breeze off the Irish Sea, Mum was likely to put her coat on again five minutes after taking it off.

I’m pretty sure they didn’t own swimming costumes, although Dad said that in his youth he’d been taught to swim by being thrown into the River Teme below Ludford Bridge. His survival was the only evidence I ever saw that he’d learnt his lesson. In a break with tradition one year, in the late 60s, we had our summer day out in Rhyl. Unlike Borth, it was a destination that seemed to merit the name resort. It had a proper seafront with ice cream parlours and a funfair. But it was crawling with gangs of Skinheads and Hell’s Angels, the successors of the Mods and Rockers that had flourished earlier in the decade.

In an attempt to keep the rival groups apart, the police marched them up and down the seafront.

And, as we also marched from café to café for the obligatory cups of tea, our family became caught up in the tide of swearing. In a manner that horrified Brian and me, Dad took the pipe from his mouth every few yards and passed comment on the youths that surrounded us: “What on earth does he look like?

Just look at that.”

To this day, I’m convinced it wasn’t the police that saved us from a savage mauling, but the fact that we always turned into another café before the Skinheads could get at us.

When we arrived back in Ludlow that evening and switched on the television news, running battles were reported in all the resorts along the North Wales coast, including Rhyl. Frustration, beer and contemptuous comments from men like my dad, had finally become too much for the gangs.

I couldn’t imagine anyone rampaging in Borth.

Please, don’t forget to check for hedgehogs before lighting bonfire piles

Nature as it’ll be in October

Bespoke Picture Framing

text edited from } www.open.edu | image } Rob Ward

– NATURE – WHAT to look for? Autumn is here.

The scarlet berries of black bryony string the hedges and luminous red berries of guelder rose glow in damp woods. other colours provided by late flowers include the yellow of ragwort and the soft purple of water mint.

Fungi are at their best, so look under birch trees for the distinctive fly agaric with its red cap and white spots, and the red, purple and yellow russulas.

At night listen out for the soft sighing of redwings as they arrive into our countryside; you can often hear their calls even above night traffic. Watch out for red deer and fallow deer in parks and woods, and see the males fighting each other for access to groups of females.

In the garden, hedgehogs are looking for hibernation spots and fat

orb spiders sit in their spiral webs.

Look out for the 22-spot ladybird, which is a vegetarian and active long after others have gone to sleep for the winter.

Did you know? The giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea) can reach sizes of up to 150cm and weigh in at 20kg. A large specimen might contain up to 7 trillion spores.

Habitat of the month: A last burst of activity with leaves turning colour and berries ripening. Many animals are busy stocking up for the winter so keep an eye out for birds feeding on the ripened berries and looking for invertebrates in the leaf litter.

Photo opportunity: Fungi. Many types send up their fruiting bodies at this time of year. get down on your elbows to get up close; a small tripod is useful to keep the lens steady, especially as the light can be low. Be careful and don’t touch, as some fungi can be poisonous.

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11

‘In many cases more competitive than Tesco’

Organic gem within our midst

for the inhabitants but also for the greater good. Working on the ethos that organic food benefits our health, the community and the environment as a whole, Myriad has become a valuable hub in the local organic supply chain, and a shop that is true to the local organic and environmental movement.

With strong scientific evidence showing that organically farmed food is richer in nutrients, and that the detrimental effects of pesticides on wildlife and human health is so great, then reducing the use of toxic insecticides and pesticides has wide-ranging benefits for both us and the planet. Synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (gMos), oil-based fertilisers, antibiotics, growth hormones and feed containing animal by-products are all contributing to environmental degradation on a scale we’ve never seen, and they are implicated in ruining our own health. Toxic metals such as cadmium, high levels of dangerous nitrates, and pesticide residues are known to cause and contribute to any number of conditions ranging from allergies to kidney failure or even cancer. New research from Newcastle University has revealed that organic crops have “substantially higher” levels of disease-fighting antioxidants – now known to be between 19 and 69 percent. In other words, as The Soil Association (who campaign for sustainable farming and land use) put it, this latest research shatters the myth that how we farm does not affect the quality of the food we eat.

It does.

Counter to the many advantages, however, many people are put off by the perceived expense of organic products. So what does Myriad’s Jacki say to those who insist that organics are only available to those who have the spending power?

“I often pop over to Tesco with my notebook to check prices, and I’ve found that, in many cases, we are actually more competitive.

We’re in business – we’re business people and understand the need for

profit. Yet why does this have to be through exploitation of the earth and its animals and people? We’re managing to compete with a big supermarket without doing any of those things.”

For this reason, Myriad has built up sustained and equitable relationships with their suppliers, who range from small market gardeners to larger organic concerns such as graig’s Farm. “I love the fact that we’re not nameless and faceless,” explains Jacki. “We know every supplier by first name, and can account for every part of the supply process, back to individual herds of animals. What the horse meat scandal showed us so clearly, is that in many cases we have no idea what we’re actually eating. I have no problem with anyone eating horse meat if they want to, but surely they have a right to know that that’s what it is?”

So what’s the problem with food production today? If it’s so disastrous, why aren’t more food producers and suppliers eschewing factory-farmed chickens in favour of a hen that’s pecked its way to full weight without hormones, or potatoes grown in chemical-free soil? “Unfortunately, it’s very hard for smaller food producers to get approval from the Soil Association,” Jacki explains. “There’s a lot of expense and hoops to jump through.

Smaller producers often don’t have the capital to do this. So although, on one hand, the Soil Association is good and necessary, it does create a problem for smaller farms.”

With our current dependence on agri-businesses and a growing population to feed, establishing exclusively organic agriculture isn’t simple. However, shops like Myriad are central to the community and grass roots organic food production.

It might be the David of Corve Street compared to Tesco’s goliath but, as Jacki puts it, “It’s the small people in Ludlow who count.

Because ultimately, that’s what makes Ludlow.”

&

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text } Mia Davis | image } Richard Stanton

– LIFESTYLE – IT’S not that difficult to think of a list of ironies in modern life.

Why, for example, do more of us live alone in ever larger houses?

How can anyone explain the floral infestation that is Cath Kidston, when the majority of the population still don’t bake their own cup cakes? Or why, when we have more information at our fingertips than ever before, is the internet more commonly used for googling pictures of cats and Justin Bieber?

Amongst these puzzling paradoxes, is the slightly more serious fact that, when it comes to food, anything produced without the use of chemical fertilisers or pesticides, is now a commercial product in its own right. Explain to a 19th-century farmer that their crops, grown entirely from soil, rain and lashings of horse muck would have their own dedicated market in 21stcentury Britain – it’s likely that he would be puzzled.

Yet organic food has positioned

itself in the food retailing landscape, largely thanks to the fact that eating food that isn’t contaminated by poisonous chemicals is fairly attractive. gone are the implications that buying organic makes you a sandalwood wafting hippy – today, organic food may still not be mainstream, but it’s almost as likely to be found in the kitchen cupboards of Barratt homes, or statementbasement kitchens in Notting Hill as in any commune.

Ludlow, of course, is fairly unique in providing wide-ranging access to great quality local produce from independent shops, making buying organic seem almost irrelevant.

However, the gem within our midst that is Myriad Organics can’t be overlooked. Having been central to Ludlow for many years, owners graham and Jacki devote themselves to their Corve Street shop, bringing earth-flecked organic vegetables, organic fruit, dairy, bakery, frozen meat, fish and household products all free from toxic chemicals and additives, to Ludlow; not only

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12 An 1864 sales ledger and a coffin table

The seldom seen rooms of Rickards text } Jon Saxon | images } Richard Stanton

– BEHIND THE SCENES – DeeP below our town’s largely untouched ironmongers is a vast vaulted cellar, flowing beneath both buildings that constitute Rickards (buildings 6 and 7, left and right respectively), and then on into No 5 – now the Bindery Shop. It is suggested that this cellar is far earlier in origin than the late 18th century brickwork above it, which historians have linked to The Salutation Inn that once stood on this site: a length of cobbled pavement hints that stables were also part of the original building.

The rear range, accommodating the vast warehouse, also pre-dates the front plot’s vintage. As an inn it was run in the 1680s by John Morris Junior, son of the landlord to the newly opened Feathers, though little is known about the establishment other than it sold wines, beer, ale and cider. John Morris Junior died in 1689, with the inn possibly closing early in the next century, judging by a lack of reference to it in the 1742 Licensing Act records.

Sixty years on and John griffiths is seen to own both the shops that form what Rickards is today – shops 6 and 7; a few years later No 7 became the property of Edward Egginton; an ironmonger.

Somewhere between 1803 and 1861 the family also purchased No 6. From this point on a number of different tenants operated as ironmongers out of both buildings, until February 1865, when James Rickards (a farmer from Wistanstow) arrived on the scene.

Six years later, in March, James handed over the keys and the reigns of the southern aspect of the store to his son Heber, for £205. Heber was already the proprietor of the northern facing No 7, following a deal in the September of 1866.

The Rickards we see today is from this period – dressed in Flemish-bond brickwork (extremely popular in the late 17th century) and Regency windows (with their tall thin expanses of shop-front glass, separated by fine glazing bars, and accompanied by Victorian flourishes on the first floor, including the sash bay above the entrance of No 7.

Enter Rickards through this door and you’ll see an enclosed wooden cubicle (housing a desk) where the cashier would have taken, tallied and recorded each day’s sales purchases in a large tome.

The ledgers are, perhaps, the most extraordinary aspect of this shop. go through the ‘Staff’ doorway, past the right-hand manager’s office and out of the back door, and you stand in the open-air courtyard, circled by an elderly warehouse.

Directly in front is another ‘staff only’ doorway, which leads up a wooden staircase to a first floor – the first of many steep steps to take, before being face-to-face with the room of these incredible ledgers.

This initial room is known as the ‘Nail Room,’ one of the many labelled rooms of this warehouse; this one is not only home to quantities of nails, screws, nuts and bolts but, thanks to its two-storey height, is a perfect space to store larger stock – such as bars for gatemaking (which I read were up to twenty feet long) and ladders. Today the construction does little to belie its bygone duties, with the ceiling’s wooden latticework torn open in more places than not, suspending large internal chunks of fallen plaster on stout cobwebs.

Piles of stock, and the boxes they once called home, flow on from a finger’s touch to the furthest corners, shrouded in a shadow impenetrable to our weedy torch.

It’s totally absorbing and incredibly inviting; to investigate what lurks in those daringly dark recesses of Rickards’ Nail Room. But there’s no logical way to reach the curios, no way to really explain the purpose of what you may now have in the palm of your hand and, above all, should we be adding our fingerprints to this building’s lifeline? … being respectful not to rearrange the dust or interrupt the decomposition of sheet tin, cardboard boxes and Red Admirals.

A single step up takes us into the ‘grate Room’ where we find an array of kitchen ranges, bricks for Rayburns, and may more cubbyholes and postcard slips, turned brown with age, stapled to the doorway: printed with Rickards & Sons Ltd – along with handwritten, coded pricelists. Also from the Nail Room, a steep angled flight of steps goes to an upper level, which appears to be home to water pipes, taps and boxes full of the unknown.

Walking through this room, being able to look out of the window into the courtyard, we take a couple of prompt narrow steps through an open doorway down into the front building. This room holds many varied oil lamps and heaters, coated in a greying blanket of time, upon the planked floor and within the wooden shelving unit fixed upon the north-facing wall. Upon the southern wall is a simple, two-tier shelf arrangement that reaches dog-leg around from the right to the wall that faces towards Corve Street, holding a consignment of beautifully handwritten stock books dating from 1903 – carefully wrapped up in brown paper and

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13

14 neatly tied with string.

A tiny window under the basic shelving unit casts a little light over its contents, as does a slightly larger window – the latter’s light segmenting in different directions by the steep steps of the staircase that leads up into an attic space.

Up here are the ledgers we’ve been trying to reach, distracted on the way by unique objects, striking snapshots of decay, and elegantly crude wooden units built and squeezed into the tightest and most obscure of spaces.

The attic is full of ledgers dating from 1803 and roughly stacked in order, with many decades forming a carpet – the late Sixties pave the floor like fallen dominoes; the Seventies tower to the sun in single file; and the Eighties and beyond slot into the remaining space. Inside are the hand-written details of customer accounts. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the past, with one customer acquiring some silver sand, string and two pruning scissors. I’m not entirely sure how this lady would feel about me snooping through her ironmongery accounts (which are significant) so close the book shut, and refrain from prying any further; tempted only by a quick glimpse at a smaller sales ledger from 1918.

Starting from scratch, back down on ground level, we again go through the ‘Staff’ door of No 7 and, this time, turn right before the manager’s office – a stairwell that leads an eye down to the cellar and up to what was once part storage and part residential quarters for the Rickards family.

On the landing a cupboard is jampacked with even more stock books and sale ledgers, crammed from floor to ceiling, front to back and towering precariously against one another: an incredible spectacle.

At this point I shall admit that there are so many different rooms on different floors, that I have since become confused as to which room was which. Somewhere on the right (possibly the first on the right) is the ‘Marking Off Room’ where smaller goods would have initially been taken to be priced. These days the door sign states ‘Do not enter; no current stock’.

Inside there are more ledgers, torn green leaf-pattern wallpaper, a fireplace and a ceiling that has seen better days; all looking into the centre of a room full of mixedaged objects: the box to a new Samsung cash register stands next to the packaging for a 1950s Pifco Christmas tree.

Taking the step up from the first landing, onto the second, another cupboard door reveals the ‘Strong Room’, with a secure metal-mesh door, for the safe storage of gun cartridges and customers’ firearms.

Off this landing is also the first main room, known as the ‘Tin Room’ which may also be the room some refer to as the ‘galvanised Room’ which, amongst other things, was home to sieves, filters and related tin utensils.

This room also houses the coffin table, though not the brass coffin furniture that Rickards would have once displayed. From hereon it is probably easier to just explain each of the rooms without trying the impossible and naming them all in direct proximity. Along this corridor

are a further few rooms including the ‘Paint Room’, as well as the ‘Dining Room’.

Another flight of stairs leads up to the top floor of the front aspect of both numbers 6 and 7, and the ‘glass Room’, the ‘garden Room’ (spades, forks and hoes), as well as the ‘Fitting Room’, which is the top left window as you face the front of the shop. This room stored all of the agricultural implements including fittings for work horses and ploughing gear. Today the shelves are still ripe with what was once commonplace; one shelf is inked up as ‘Hornby’s Binder Fittings’ which another states ‘Ransomes Cultivator Parts’.

On the way back down the narrow corridor, with its dark hand-printed wallpaper, is what they call the ‘Wood Room’. It’s in this room, designated for the storage of clothes horses, spade handles and yokes, that we find a fragment of newspaper, poking out from behind the decorative wallpaper, and dated November 1879; eight years after Heber Rickards took up residence he refurbished his family home (over his shop premises) to an extremely high standard of domestic living, it has been reported.

We have walked every room, from its vaulted roots to its trapdoor heights, with views out of the attic reaching towards The Reading Room and St Laurence’s and the most significant thing about this building is that, aside from a creaky door or two, it doesn’t budge under investigation – a testament to what standing still for well over 200 years will do for you constitution.

And long may it continue: maintaining its historical fabric, even if much is hanging by a thread, whilst traditional trade continues unperturbed by progress – still to this day serving nails by the weight.

------------------------------------------To bring the business up to the present day: Rickards became an incorporated business in 1935 under the directorship of Edward Rickards, William Munns and Giles Lloyd. Edward would later pass away in 1946, ceasing over 80 years of family connection with the shop.

The business survived with Giles Lloyd and his son Jim at the helm, with Giles himself passing away in 1951. Jim continued to develop the business as a Builders and Plumbers Merchants together with Vic Hicks until Jim’s own death in 1975. Vic then ran the business with Sybil Marsh and the continuing support of the Lloyd family until 2000 when Vic died – serving the Rickards’ business for well over 50 years.

Today the Lloyd family remains committed to the Rickards’ business as it celebrates its 150th year of trading; managed by Phil Maile who is doing a sterling job of protecting the Rickards’ traditions, histories, and architectural attributes.

Rickards & Son Ltd 6-7 Bull Ring, Ludlow, SY8 1AE 01584 872934 www.rickardsofludlow.co.uk

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15 our 20th festival of food

How did it all start – and why? text } John Fleming | image } Ludlow Food Festival

– EVENTS – BACK in 1995, things weren’t looking too good for Ludlow.

Local retailers were worried that all forecasts seemed to indicate a steady decline for small independent shops – and for small market towns in general. In fact there were quite a few retailers and other small businesses who couldn’t see a viable future.

Many local people were travelling to larger towns for their weekly food shopping and major purchases, and there was a significant number of empty shop premises in the town.

There were planning applications in the offing for not one, but two major supermarkets – one in Corve Street, but also a large one on the A49 bypass on the edge of town, which it was feared would draw a considerable amount of trade away from the centre of Ludlow.

The town’s attractiveness, for both locals and visitors, and its prosperity are inseparably linked with the economic viability of the town centre.

The long-established Ludlow arts festival, featuring an open-air Shakespeare production in Ludlow Castle and other events, took place over two weeks at the end of June – as it still does. Although it brought visitors into Ludlow, many of these people drove into town in the early evening, went into the castle to watch the play, and then drove home again. Two weeks of the arts festival and then nothing seemed to happen in Ludlow for another twelve months.

Some members of Ludlow Chamber of Trade came to the conclusion that there needed to be another festival to attract visitors to Ludlow, maybe later in the summer.

A few different possibilities were considered but it was the notion of a ‘festival of food and drink’ that really inspired and which was to become an all-consuming passion.

We wanted to create a weekend festival that would be not only great fun, but would also introduce people to the amazingly high quality of food and drink that was to be found locally in the independent food shops of Ludlow – things of a quality and individuality that were simply not available in supermarkets.

Many of the small food and drink producers in the Ludlow area, and up and down the Welsh border country, were passionate about the quality of their products but, like the independent retailers, were deeply concerned for their future business – they had little or no marketing power and had difficulty finding sales outlets.

Food festivals and farmers’ markets didn’t exist yet and the independent food shops that were the small producers’ traditional outlet, were dwindling and facing an uncertain future. Many of these producers could not produce enough quantity of their product to supply supermarkets or big wholesalers.

And some of those who did supply the big chains found that they were locked into contracts which subsequently became less attractive.

An initial press release in the local newspapers outlined the idea of the Food and Drink Festival, and people who were interested in helping to organise it were invited to a meeting which took place in the back room of the Bull Hotel on 24 May 1995 – a date less than four months before the planned date of the festival on the weekend of 16–17 September.

The embryonic plans for the festival were outlined at the meeting. There was to be a farmers’ market in Castle Square on the Sunday with a focus on local suppliers, an exhibition of foodrelated art at the Silk Top Hat gallery in Quality Square, and a weekend of food-related films at the Assembly Rooms. An ambitious scheme to send out food hampers of

local produce to national journalists known to be interested in food and drink was also announced. As a result of the Bull Hotel meeting, a nucleus of interested people started to plan the event in detail.

There was no formal committee structure in those days, although in theory the festival was being organised by a sub-committee of the local Chamber of Trade. It was announced repeatedly throughout the following months that anyone interested in joining in planning the festival, or who wanted to find out more, should turn up at the Bull Hotel at 6pm on any Monday.

We found people with considerable experience and knowledge of sales, marketing, journalism, retailing, catering, food and drink production, pub management, publishing, publicity, graphic design, printing, and more.

Some members of this original team are still involved with the festival 20 years later.

The ideas developed in the short space of time between May and September. In parallel with the need to plan the events that would make up the festival, much time was invested in publicity (an investment that was to prove its worth many times over) and there was also a need to try to secure some funds to enable the event to get off the ground. South Shropshire District Council were very supportive from the start, giving us much practical help as well as a grant of £650 and the Chamber of Trade advanced a ‘loan’ of up to £400, which in the event was not required. other bodies, including the regional Tourist Board, had attitudes ranging from uninterested to hostile.

As well as the Sunday farmers’ produce market, it was decided to hold a Drinks Fair in Ludlow College on the Saturday and Sunday, featuring local brewers (Hobsons of Cleobury Mortimer and Woods from Wistanstow), local producers of fruit wines and spirits, some local wine merchants, and talks from wine expert Charles Metcalfe and others.

A major draw to the festival in its first year and subsequently, was the brilliant and original idea of the Festival Sausage Trail and the Festival Loaf Trail, as well as a Cheese Competition Trail. The trails had three purposes – to draw attention to the excellent quality of the products offered by Ludlow’s independent butchers, bakers and cheese sellers; to involve the public by getting them to taste and vote

for their favourite sausage or loaf; and to get people to walk round the town centre visiting the various shops. The trails were enormously popular and attracted much attention prior to the event. Visitors from other towns, especially larger ones where independent butchers and bakers had been largely eliminated by the all-conquering supermarkets, were amazed to find that a small place like Ludlow could support, at that time, seven independent butchers and four or five independent bakers, all of whom took great pride in producing and supplying excellent quality produce.

The weekend of the festival arrived. We had received some valuable publicity – national, regional and local – in the weeks leading up to the event. on the Friday, one day before the festival, Jimmy Young spent some time talking about the festival on his very popular Radio 2 music show, and this made a significant increase to our numbers.

Many people worked very hard to make the 1995 Food and Drink Festival a great success. Not just the organisers but also the butchers and bakers who faced an unprecedented demand for their products, and the many people who volunteered to turn up and help during the weekend itself.

So many visitors went away saying that they had had a great time and had discovered a wonderful place to which they intended to return and continue to enjoy the great food and drink.

------------------------------------------John Fleming, a founding member of the Festival, is currently the Company Secretary. He has also gone on to help start the notfor-profit voluntary organisation: tasterealfood.com

------------------------------------------Book your tickets for the 2014 festival online, using the ‘SY8’ code and save £1 off the entry fee. www.foodfestival.co.uk

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16 Amanda Brisbane glass Studio

Casting glass a little further text } Jon Saxon | images } Richard Stanton

– PROFILE – I’m not sure what impresses me most about Amanda’s adventure so far. Stopping Birmingham traffic just before Christmas, as four-tons of glass and slate are taken off the back of a lorry for Broad Street’s Regency Wharf, is up there. Then so is having a piece bought by the Corning Museum of glass in New York ... as is receiving the Worshipful Company of glass Sellers award in 1989 from the Lord Major of London. The litter of similar awards, including the Small Export Business award for the Midlands in 1995, a long roll call of commissions and the acres of Air Miles that have followed, are partnered by peculiar tales borne of this rather fantastic (and clearly blessed) business model, which stems back beyond The Crafts Council and Shropshire Chamber of Commerce who, along with the investment of the DTI in those early years, invested £16,000 and £5,000 respectively. But talk to Amanda for long enough and the guiding light that is Amanda’s father, John Brisbane, beams evidently through.

“I’d just got off a red-eye flight from Detroit, after a show I had out at the Habatat galleries. I literally went for the weekend. I got off this red eye and had The Daily Telegraph coming to my first studio in galdeford, and dad said to me: ‘Well where are all your hanging baskets? You should have hanging baskets outside the studio, what on earth do you think you’re doing?’ And I remember thinking: ‘gosh, hang on a minute, I’m trying my hardest here.’ He was always like this … ‘you’ve got to have presentation, it’s all got to look fabulous’ – hence why there are so many hanging baskets outside now.

He had a very good work ethic: you’ve got to get on, and you’ve got to get out there and be driven; you can’t be lazy – not in a strict way, but in a nice way.”

It was much the same for Amanda’s siblings, two sisters (bronze-foundry gabrielle in Putney and china-restorer Julia, over in Presteigne) alongside Onibury brother Michael, who trades in bamboo. “My father inherited his father’s business – which was Motorway Remoulds in Knighton – and he didn’t really want to be doing that, so that’s why he supported all of us – that’s why he kindly paid for me to go to Central Art & Design, and believed in us.

That drive is what I’ve been given in my life; very privileged.”

Heading to London, in the early Eighties, Amanda enrolled in the College’s renowned foundation course – with an ambition to become a jewellery maker. Under

the key tutorship of Caroline Broadhead and, perhaps more significantly, Wendy Ramshaw – revered as Britain’s foremost jewellery designer – it seems odd to be sat here knowing of these influences and talking to Amanda as a maker of glass rather than jewellery.

“I was playing around with coloured film gels one day and the tutor said to me: ‘I think you’ve got the most amazing eye for transparencies of colour, maybe you should look at the glass course.’ So I went down to Farnham where glass was a relatively new department. I went into the hot shop saw the fire and that was it.”

It was within the second year of this fledgling course that a six-month’s scholarship was secured, taking Amanda to the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia.

It was here, in 1985, that Amanda was introduced to sand casting; an altogether different process to what most people expect. No they don’t blow glass here in Stanton Lacy: “Imagine yourself being on a beach, and making textures in the sand and casting hot molten glass in there, and then picking it up and manipulating it.”

But beyond the fire and brimstone, is another layer seemingly lost under her success of glass – when you learn of another talent that supported her overseas education....

“I’m actually a very good knitter.

I’d teach courses of an evening, or if people came in where they basically had made a mess of things … I’d pick up all the stitches and get it back all together for them.”

The same applied a year later in Boston, where Amanda studied for her Masters at the Mass School of Art. “I found this place and sort of became an out-worker: I even had my own label sewn in, and got to a point where I would knit my designs without having a pattern – making it up as I went along. Well you know: you’ve got to work. A little random, I know.”

Even at this stage Amanda’s glass work was gaining attention, with two pieces featuring in Neues glas, the international art and architecture magazine – at which time sand casting had become a part of her working process: blown sculptural pieces now married to cast elements.

“My first studio was in Lower galdeford, down from Lloyd Pharmacy; I think there’s a hairdressers there now, behind what used to be Elim Pentecostal church. I moved there in 1987 and got involved in doing big contracts for Royal Caribbean cruise liners. Because of the access, we couldn’t get forklift trucks down that passageway. We were doing these huge sculptures, which were

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17

18 two metres diameter – I mean you just couldn’t move anything. I was then doing a contract for a designer called Nick Allen, in London – this huge Lazy Susan, with all these glass panels – a big project. I went in one morning and the pot had gone, and there was glass flowing out on the floor, and I thought – you know what – I think I’ve had enough.”

Amanda took time out from the world of glass to marry, in 1992, and have daughter georgia – she embarked on a second sitting of glass making in 1999. “We moved into Manor House, which is in Stanton Lacy, and the farm development was going on, right on our doorstep, so I got involved and looked at the spaces when they were literally derelict barns, and got talking to the estate and they said: ‘how much of the space do you want; how do you want it?’ And it was totally purpose built for us, as have the other units been for the other people.”

All these years on the fear is still there – as if it was only yesterday – of investing absolutely everything into a heavily ambitious venture, housed within an equally ambitious renovation, on the outskirts of Ludlow. “It was pretty scary. I thought: what am I going to do? I’ve got to be a bit more commercial. I want to sell work; I don’t want to have exhibitions. So I thought about this idea of making the vessels with the textures, and what have you – which has developed from there.”

This process has catapulted creations inspired by fish, flowers, leaves and sea forms, to many different markets, with an avid client base collecting all shapes and sizes. The Middle East market is one of the strongest supporters of Amanda’s work, with the scale of the work perfectly suited to the scale of the homes in that corner of the globe. North America is another significant market for the work, marking how well these locally made, and often locally inspired, pieces translate overseas. And as for Amanda herself, I wonder how she translates? “They probably think I’m completely bonkers, quite frankly – but there you go.”

What’s just as mad is that there’s hardly a sign of mishap upon her – considering the daily exercise with 1162 degrees of raging glass.

It leaves me a little shy of the burn stories I was expecting. “Funnily I’ve had more burns off taps in hot baths than I have in the studio.

Quite limited, really.” Seeking a sensational headline I enquire after the six glass panels commissioned

by Whiston Hospital for their burns unit in 1988. “That is quite an odd commission, isn’t it? And no, I didn’t burn myself making it.”

There are plenty of downsides to the business – though not a permanent parking space at Ludlow A&E (which is a good thing on more levels than one) – with local power cuts, flooding and occasionally being left without an urgent delivery of sand or gas. Even the clients can prove a headache, from time to time. But behind the occasional run of sour luck is a semi-constant catalogue of clientele deserving of the Brisbane charm.

“We have a client on at the moment, based in Texas. We are creating pieces for two of their investors in

South Korea who funded their two new drilling ships. She said: ‘I don’t mind what you make as long as it’s a complete wow factor.’ Now that’s my idea of a commission. In fact it was her mother who said to her: ‘if you want something wow this is the person to go to.’ Now that’s pretty lovely, when you’re tucked away in little Shropshire in Stanton Lacy, that can happen.”

I fear, however, that given so much free reign will lead to a difficult time, when it comes to packaging up these pieces – fit to fly – knowing that some previous sales have returned to haunt. “There was a wonderful leaf we made for a client in Florida – it was just absolutely fantastic. I wish I’d never sold it. You never keep the best things. You sell them, and end up with things that are broken.”

Amidst the current commissions is also a brand new collection called Hidden oceans – that will join a long line of prior collections that have had pride of place at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Harrods of London and Dubai’s Majlis gallery – proving that the work continues to evolve, which says just as much of the studio environment and the partnership fostered by Amanda over the past 11 years.

“I did find it difficult working with other people (trying to find people who shared my work ethic, and not crowding your space when you’re trying to be creative). Then finding gail was like the answer to my dreams. Because she just understands what other things need to be done, to make. We talk about things, and then the next morning (after talking about leaves or something) there is a plaster mould put by the side of the table, for me to work with. She’s fantastic. And she is brilliant with her colour. I suppose I’m not the easiest person to work with, because I go about things probably in a very different way than what is conventional, really. So it’s quite difficult for other people to understand what I’m about. But gail and I have a very good working relationship – we just bring things together – which is very special, really.”

And let us not forget the part that Ludlow plays. “Ludlow is an amazing place to show off to people. I mean they just went wow when I did a presentation in America about Ludlow: ‘Is that really where you live?’ And I’m proud of that, to think that’s one’s environment.” Amanda encourages her customers to visit too, from the likes of Istanbul and Kuwait. And to labour the point, a day prior to this interview, two collectors flew over from Bombay: “Their main reason for coming to the UK was to come to Ludlow.” How many other local businesses draw in their client base to proudly come, stay, wine and dine, and purchase a moment in time, here in Ludlow?

What I do know, is that Ludlow’s first lady of glass is rather humble about it all – thankful in so many ways for her foundation and the life it has indeed allowed, yet excited, and full of expression in light of the next chapter. “I look back often and I feel very privileged – just amazed at what we’ve done – but then, maybe, the best is yet to come?”

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Amanda Brisbane Glass Studio The Glassbarn, Church Farm Studios, Stanton Lacy, Shropshire, SY8 2AE | 01584 856292 | www.amandabrisbaneglass.com

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Photographer RICHARD STANTON has been here there and everywhere, to help illustrate this issue; being burned to a crisp at the Amanda Brisbane Glass Studio (p16), narrowly avoiding a tea and biscuit overload at Churchill House (p9), and being left speechless during an exclusive all access areas visit to Bull Ring ironmongers, Rickards (p12).

You can find out where else Richard has been, by heading to: stantonphotographic.com From one end of town to the other, writer MIA DAVIS spent time at both the North Farm riding stables (p22) up beyond Whitcliffe, and at the foot of Corve Street, to spend time with Jacki of Myriad Organics (11). When not charging all over Ludlow for Ludlow Ledger, Mia is copywriting – specialising in optimised web content, press releases, leaflets, brochure copy, speeches and slogans. Available on 01584 877624 or via miadavis37@googlemail.com Thank you to both BERT WELLS and JOHN MOYLE who kindly supplied poetry for this issue, found on pages 7 and 21 respectively. Thank you also to the Food Festival’s JOHN FLEMING for his trip down memory lane (p15).

You may well know Brian from Ludlow train station, but how many of you know his brother RON POWELL – who penned a holiday snapshot for page 10? Look out for more of Ron’s writing in future issues of Ludlow Ledger. In the meantime, visit: ronpowell.co.uk This issue LIZ HYDER is proving quite the historical correspondent – documenting local legend Dr Thomas Lloyd (p5) and our rather fantastic cover story of a local WW1 plane build. For more on something a bit younger, check out: lizhyder.co.uk We are pleased to say that sub-editor SALLY NEWMAN-KIDD is with us for yet another issue – and many more to come, we hope – again finding time in her busy schedule to edit the Ledger’s words (19,648 of them). She sacrificed the housework for the cause – we’ve seen the proof. You can find her at sally@nka.co.uk

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20 – COVER STORY – < continued from the front page What David and Rick hadn’t realised was that their grandfather had been harbouring pieces from an old WW1 aircraft in his shed. It was only after his death in 1983, when Rick and David were clearing out his belongings, that they made the remarkable discovery – they found a rudder bar, the control stick and the magneto from their grandfather’s aircraft. At the time, they didn’t know what aircraft the bits were from but kept them, joking that they’d always wanted to build a WW1 plane.

Some years later, when David started to research where the items were actually from, he tracked down original drawings of early aircraft and discovered that they were part of his grandfather’s favourite method of flight, a singleseat reconnaissance plane.

“We used to ask grandad what type of aircraft he flew and he told us ‘the Bristol Bullet’. It was only later – much later – that we came across the Bristol Bullet as a nickname for the Bristol Scout, on account of its high speed,” explains David. A fast and manoeuvrable bi-plane, the Bristol Scout was used for a quick update on what was happening on the ground during the War. Unarmed, they could travel up to 90mph, considerably faster than a two-seater which could only go up to 60mph. “The Scout is unique,” says David. “In many ways, it was the prototype for fighter aircraft.” only around 370 of them were ever built and, remarkably, David’s reproduction Bristol Scout, when finished, will be the only one in the entire world that can actually take to the skies.

With just the three original pieces from their grandfather’s plane, David, Rick and Theo have had an enormous undertaking to get from the seed of an idea to a fully fledged aircraft, and it has taken years and a lot of effort to track down even the plans for the Bristol Scout. Without detailed plans, even with the impressive engineering skills that the trio hold, there was no way in the world they’d be able to reconstruct the plane accurately.

David has gone to extraordinary lengths to find these plans with a dogged ‘if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly’ attitude, from borrowing a cherry picker to take detailed close-up pictures of a nonflyable reconstruction at a museum, to contacting fellow enthusiasts all over the world. Eventually, he gathered various incomplete sets of plans for the Scout from various sources, but it still wasn’t enough.

Enter Sir george White, the great grandson of the Bristol Airplane Company that created and launched the Bristol Scout. David managed to get in touch with him and discovered, fortuitously, that Sir george had found, hidden in the bottom of an old desk drawer, a fully complete and detailed partslist for the Scout – a beautifully produced, unique document full of photos and diagrams printed in 1915 for the princely sum of 20 shillings.

Neither Sir george nor David can work out quite what the document was originally for, given the top secret nature of any warplane’s construction, but their best guess

was that it was a Christmas present for Sir george’s great grandfather.

As David says drily, “a pair of socks won’t quite cut it for a millionaire.”

Armed with a copy of this fantastic document, David, Rick and Theo were finally able to go full steam ahead on building their new Bristol Scout around the three original pieces they already had.

From the handmade oil tanks to the hand stitched canvas wings, every single part of David’s exquisite reproduction aircraft has a story behind it, including the rather wonderful Heath Robinsonlooking rotary engine situated at the nose of the craft. So how exactly do you find an aircraft engine from WW1? David laughs, “Surprisingly there are quite a number of them, spare stock that was left over, they still exist and they are reliable but, unfortunately, they are almost all owned by museums or millionaires.” over the years, he’s been sent details of suitable candidates from around the world, from Argentina to Kemble, but to find an original engine in running condition was much harder. David tells of his encounter with the comically named Kermit Weeks, a billionaire in Florida who has also been a champion aerobatic pilot.

Weeks’s maintenance team showed David racks of dozens of engines, all in mint condition. David sighs heavily. “Would he sell any of them to us? No. You get this blank stare from collectors generally. They want the object for itself, for what it represents.”

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In the end, David managed to secure an engine from New Zealand for his Bristol Scout. While in NZ to look at renowned film director Peter Jackson’s collection of WW1 aircraft, David met gene de Marco, one of the world’s leading pilots of early aircraft. Not only does De Marco have over 25 years’ experience with early planes, conveniently he’s also production manager at TVAL (The Vintage Aviator Ltd), who make reproduction planes from scratch to the highest spec possible – including rotary engines.

I ask David how much the engine cost them, but he won’t be drawn.

With a twinkle in his eyes, he says: “Let’s just say that gene has volunteered to do the first flight on the Scout and we’re definitely going to hold him to that.” David shoots a look at his watch. “Do you want to see it then?” he asks. Twenty minutes later, and we’re at David and Rick’s hangar next to a sheep field in South Shropshire. The plane (minus the wings, which Theo is still working on) is zipped up in an airtight tent. As David takes the cover off, I find my breath taken away by this stunningly beautiful machine. It looks incredibly delicate, with thin steel cables, wood no more than a few inches thick and a tiny wicker seat that looks quite impossible to get into, unless you’re gifted with gymnastic flexibility. “oh no, I can fit in it,” says David, “and I’m six foot three. grandad was the same height, although we realised he’d extended

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the control-stick by two inches.”

I point out how fragile the plane looks and David laughs. “This was cutting edge technology at the time.

You have to remember planes were incredibly new. But it’s surprising how similar it is to modern aircraft.”

I remark on the lack of a seatbelt and David laughs. “I think we don’t appreciate how much the attitude to risk has changed in my lifetime. The generation of my grandad’s time were off travelling and exploring, it was what you did.” He points towards where the propellers will be sited. “Although the Scout was unarmed, pilots did attach guns to the sides and I reckon, in any drum of ammo, one in 15 would go through the propeller blade.

Nowadays, we wouldn’t fly with even a notch in a blade. They were flying with holes right through the blades.”

So how much have the trio spent on building the Scout? David scratches his chin. “Well, I’ve spent over £40k.” he says. “It’s been a huge investment for all of us – very risky really.” And if you’d have known it would take ten years, would you still have done it? He doesn’t hesitate. “None of us have called it into question for a moment.

There’s never been any question on whether we should continue to do it.” He pauses. “Theo often says he wishes we’d started this 20 years ago but we wouldn’t have had either the money or the time.

And it never occurred to us that we wouldn’t finish it. The vast majority of the work is done, but

we’re now waiting for a few subcontractors to finish work that we don’t have the skills to do ourselves, like making the oil tank and a leather chest-belt which acts as a seatbelt.” David then launches into a passionate speech about all the fantastic artisans and craftspeople that they’ve worked with on the plane, almost all of whom they’ve found through word of mouth. His enthusiasm is infectious, so much so that I find myself in a remote countryside garage half an hour later seeing one of the finished brass oil tanks, beautifully hand-made and riveted.

So what next for the Scout when it gets the sign off to take to the skies?

“We’re busting a gut to complete it this year,” David says. “Beyond that, it depends when gene is in England really. 2016 is our ultimate deadline, the centenary of when grandad flew the plane. We’d like to take it to the airfields he flew from and recreate the flights he made.”

Do you think grandad would be proud? “grandad was a Victorian and praise from him was hardearned. He would have said that he thought we were spending too much time and money on it, but perhaps in his private thoughts he might have been pleased. I hope so.” I hope so too – and I like to think that, when David’s Bristol Scout finally takes to the air, David’s grandfather will be looking down, watching those magnificent men in their flying machines.

21 “going over the top Advance without stop.”

The trenches: 1914 to 1918 author } John Moyle

– POETRY – SINGING, as they trudged towards the trenches, They sought adventures with thoughts of fame.

“It’s a long way to go To the sweetest girl I know” In that far and foreign country The soldiers sang and thought it all a game.

Unlike their songs of returning to their lovers Those days brought fear in mud and blood, “Going over the top Advance without stop” Facing dangers of lost lives Some returned to home, many never would.

Between mud-soaked lines lay devastation, Sodden deserts, rain pouring from a darkened sky.

“Advance forward boys Through smoke and noise” Across lack of grass, or trees, Was “No Man’s Land” where dead soldiers lie.

Facing page, top left: Bristol Scout wings stored behind the sofa in Theo Willford’s living room; facing page, bottom left: Brothers David and Rick Bremner, and friend Theo discussing the build; facing page, right: David and Rick’s grandfather (right) at Thasos in the Eastern Mediterranean, in front of a Nieuport 12 – one of the other types he flew. The other pilot is South African fighter ace Sam Kincaid, who clocked up 33 victories in WW1; later joining the British 1927 Schneider Trophy team, recording a lap speed of 277.18 mph, the fastest biplane seaplane flight ever recorded; above: David greets Gene DeMarco from The Vintage Aviator in New Zealand after watching his engine running

Few who trudged singing into that tragic war Ever met again the girl that they had known.

Mothers, fathers and wives never in future saw The happy boy they had once called their own.

“Boys you were brave Now in your grave” It was old men sending young men to their fate While they in comfort had power to dominate.

THE CHURCH INN Buttercross, Ludlow, SY8 1AW 01584 872174 www.thechurchinnludlow.com 10 years + in CAMRA Good Beer Guide 10 Real Ales 10 En-Suite Rooms Function Room Home of the Ludlow Pie Company

Above, top left: Instrument panel temporarily assembled: all genuine WW1 vintage in working order; the map in the brass holder is ‘grandfather’s’ original he used to cross the 80 miles of Mediterranean between Imbros and Thasos; above, right: Rick putting the finishing touches to the uncovered airframe, with advice from Theo; above, bottom left: Theo with original Bristol propeller from which they made their copy; above, bottom right: Grandfather (right) holding the wing tip of a Bristol Scout

Images} courtesy of David Bremner | For further information on the Bristol Scout build, please visit: www.bristolscout.wordpress.com

22 North Farm Riding Establishment

Dickin’s novel approach to riding text and image } Mia Davies

– FINDING LUDLOW – IF, like many people, anything horsey conjures up visions of an elite equestrian community enjoying hunting and polo, reins in one hand and a Krug in the other, then think again. Mention horse riding to almost anyone in Ludlow, and the chances are they won’t think of ‘the sport of Kings.’ Instead, they’ll tell you that Peter taught them.

Perched at the uppermost tip of Whitcliffe, at the foot of Mortimer Forest, North Farm Riding Establishment has been there for (excuse the pun) donkey’s years, and there’s no doubt that the place elicits a strong hold in the hearts of Ludlow people. Commanding a view over Ludlow that can only be described as ‘chocolate box,’ climb on a horse up there and not only does the vista get even better, but you know you’re in good hands.

Owned and run by the irrepressibly enthusiastic Peter Dickin, he’s been at it since 1969 and is now teaching Ludlow’s third generation to ride.

Peter’s philosophy is simple. He loves horses and wants to share his joy of them with everyone and anyone. As he’s fond of saying, “I don’t care if you’re one of the Royal family. We treat everyone the same at North Farm.” And it’s this approach that makes North Farm Riding Establishment so special. go up to the stables on almost any day and you’ll encounter a cheerful bunch of both eager novice and experienced riders, all visibly excited to be there.

Yet North Farm’s unique contribution to the community is also largely attributed to the work that Peter and the volunteers do for Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA). As a national organisation, the charity is made up of a network of 500 different groups across the Country – North Farm being one of them. Children with behavioural problems, and the mentally and physically less able, regularly visit the stables for the unique emotional, physical and therapeutic value horse riding provides. All of which is made possible thanks to Peter and the dedication of volunteer helpers who generously lend so much of their time and support. So whilst horse riding at the farm provides a fine opportunity to strike out on horseback for the able bodied of Ludlow, the existence of Ludlow and District RDA has also made it a haven for those who might ordinarily have nothing to do with horses.

The thinking behind RDA is straightforward and effective.

Working with horses is a unique way of gaining freedom of movement, providing physiotherapy, developing

confidence and relationships, and having fun. Hippotherapy (a reference to hippos, the greek for ‘horse’) is the formal name for treatment or therapy aided by a horse – normally sans saddle. Yet the idea of the less able-bodied being able to ride, dates back to the Ancient greeks themselves, who recognised the benefits of using horses for rehabilitating injured soldiers. In more recent times, however, the idea began to gain traction back in 1952, when a poliostricken young Danish woman, Lis Hartel, won the Silver medal for grand Prix Dressage during the Helsinki olympics. Paralysed below the knees as a result of her polio, Lis had resolved to carry on riding against all medical advice. So inspirational was she, that a member of the British Polio Fellowship started offering rides to children afflicted by polio in the UK. Shortly afterwards, a Mrs Jacques, who had been providing rides for the inmates of an orthopaedic hospital, was present at a demonstration by her riders at Knightsbridge barracks. The results of her work so impressed a senior physiotherapist from St Thomas’ hospital that a partnership with the eminent physiotherapist ensued. As a result, the Red Cross started to organise groups for therapeutic riding, before officially being established as the charity ‘Riding for the Disabled’ in 1969.

The physical benefits of working with the horse, from freedom of movement to the physiotherapeutic value, are many but the emotional connection with the animal itself can also be transformational. As herd animals, horses are highly attuned to the behaviours and even the feelings of those around them.

It has now also been clinically proven that just being around horses changes our brainwave patterns, as we, in turn, attune to the horses.

As such, evidence is also growing to show that horse therapy seems to be particularly effective in helping those who suffer from Aspergers or Autism. Riding a horse improves core muscle strength, muscle symmetry, balance, posture, flexibility, co-ordination and breathing; those with autism, who ordinarily find it hard to connect or empathise with others, find that they can interact and make a deep and poignant connection with horses.

Many of the riders have physical disabilities, whilst others could have special needs or exhibit challenging behaviours; either way, something special happens when they ride. A child who might be labelled with any number of problems within school is often transformed by the experience. “It gives the riders self-esteem and confidence,” Peter

LUDLoW LeDGeR | IssUe 3 |

Taken from the top of St Laurence’s church; it clearly shows the scale between The Feathers

@LUDLoWLeDGeR

explains. “They’re in charge. And you often see a violent person become gentle – because horses talk in their own way.”

Whether your own experience of horses is limited to watching the grand National once a year, or you’re an equestrian expert, anyone who rides at North Farm can see how well schooled the animals are. But Peter isn’t keen on the expression ‘bomb proof’ – instead, he looks for horses with above average intelligence and schools them for more or less any eventuality. Not only are shouting and unpredictable movements or behaviours around the horses par for the course but, just as importantly, RDA needs horses who understand the rider. As a regular rider and RDA helper at North Farm myself, I’m aware of the intelligence of the horses. For instance, it’s obvious that Highway, a horse who seems to enjoy trying to pull my arms out of my sockets, doesn’t display the same behaviour with a less able person. It’s this kind of intelligence and empathy from the horse that’s crucial for RDA riders. Yet Peter makes no special boasts about what he does. “I don’t do the work. It’s a god-given gift, that certain horses give back well being to children who need it.”

The positive benefits to almost anyone of being around horses means that riding at North Farm is backed up by Peter’s other

23 Ludlow Furniture Scheme delivers the stats

The lie-on, the sits and the wardrobe text } James Cooper

– FACTS & FIGURES –

(possibly Ludlow’s most photographed building) and the library (perhaps the least) favourite turn of phrase: “There’s no such word as can’t.” As such, RDA riders often find themselves doing things that they never thought possible – thanks, in part, to Peter’s innovations. One rider, for instance, is missing her lower arms so should find riding impossible, but Peter, who operates on a level of positivity and determination more commonly seen in the Special Forces, also stands by the truism that ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ As such, he developed a method of looping the reins through the stirrups so she could direct the horse with her legs. Unconventional certainly, but she can now ride – which is what RDA is all about.

Beyond Ludlow, the group’s success has been officially recognised at Regional Level, with a major triumph in the West Midlands Group Competition at Cosford, in 2012. Performing in front of the Queen, Ludlow RDA took three of their riders, who finished first in three competitions, making Ludlow the overall champions.

What made this success even more of an achievement is the fact that the riders were riding borrowed horses for the day. Yet competition wins aside, as Peter sees it – there’s no greater achievement than the child who is able to move on from their problems. “The satisfaction of the job lies in saying goodbye to a child, because their problem has been solved.” Indeed, it’s what

makes the work so rewarding.

The connection between humans and animals is often profound, yet the link between man and horse has been with us for over 6,000 years, when the first horses roaming across the Eurasian Steppe were tamed.

From transport and agriculture to the trenches of war, this noble beast has already given us much.

Today, whilst horses remain little more than a leisure pursuit in the western world, then it makes perfect sense to put them to such good use for such worthwhile work. As long as RDA at North Farm exists, children and adults from across South Shropshire will continue to benefit from the work that goes on to make it happen. And for those without any disabilities, a ride at North Farm will give you yet another perspective on Ludlow – from the top of the hill, from the top of a horse. After all, as Churchill said: “There’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” It’s not just horsing around.

------------------------------------------Ludlow RDA is in desperate need of volunteers to assist with the ever growing list of riders. You don’t need to be able to ride, only to be reasonably active and healthy. To help or find out more, please contact RDA group organiser Margaret Anderson on 01584 810099.

What’s your Ludlow story?

We would really love to hear your Ludlow tales:

In any one-year we’ll have 100 to 150 volunteers helping us out.

Last year we received over 6,000 volunteer hours, which is of incredible value to the community.

The most expensive item that we’ve sold is probably a Welsh dresser that went for more than £800. In the last 12 months we’ve collected 366 sofas, 195 chest of drawers and 490 electrical items. In this same period 7,736 items were either given out on referral or sold to support our charitable work. We also re-used or recycled the equivalent of 2,000 washing machines. In total – over 141,000kgs of furniture.

We recently provided 50 chairs to the Thai restaurant, as well as some leather chairs for Ludlow Brewery.

Once, a member of staff happened to notice Clarks were having a refit and one of those units, with drawers for socks and ties and so on, was heading for the skip – so we rescued it. After it was refurbished Floyd noticed it in our shop window and thought it would be perfect for the Charlton Arms – it’s still there today I believe.

Sales like that really help fund our charitable activities. That is something we are trying to encourage – more communication with local businesses as they don’t realise what we can do for them.

The most popular items we sell are bric-a-brac and kitchen equipment: crockery, cutlery and glassware. We often struggle for decent beds but, more than anything, it would have to be the white goods (washing machines, fridges, dishwashers) that people don’t tend to give away until they’re

broken, so we are now buying in reconditioned washing machines to service the need. We once found a half-eaten cottage pie in a donated oven and a dog’s ashes in an urn left in a piece of furniture.

The best part of the job is helping people in desperate situations – people who have been made homeless, have survived domestic violence, or their house has burnt down or has been flooded; being able to provide them with a house full of furniture, to keep them going and knowing that we are being preventative as well as reactive. In a way, the worst part of the job, is finding that we can’t help someone because the problems run deeper than we can deal with, but we can always point people in the right direction to get the help they need.

We can’t take petrol mowers, gas appliances and weaponry (even though it’s quite valuable).

All the money and the profits stay within the charity and they go to help fund our fuel costs and vehicle maintenance (£23,684 in the last 12 months), and our rent.

But mainly it’s about providing more employment opportunities for people, training opportunities and community activities – and better service really. If you would like to donate furniture call our Re-Use Centre: 01584 877788. If you would like to volunteer call the Renaissance Centre and speak to Diane Hyde: 01584 877751. If you would like to get involved with our community activities come along to Rockspring Community Centre on a Thursday – we do lunch, including a piece of cake, for £1.50 a head: a good social occasion.

What was it like growing up in Ludlow?

How did you end up here? What do you feel needs addressing urgently in this town?

If you would like to submit an article, then please do email: ludlowledger@ sonofsaxon.co.uk or post to: Ludlow Ledger, Hillkroft, Bromfield Road, Ludlow, SY8 1DW

Image across pages 22 and 23} Michael Martin

24

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These days there’s more to it than string, fruit boxes and pram wheels

Taking down Richard’s Castle text and image } Jon Saxon

Indulge in the taste of our majestic restaurant.

Reservations essential. Serving dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm till 9pm 5 course tasting menu: £35.00 7 course tasting menu: £45.00

Found just six miles out of Ludlow: Old Downtown Lodge, Downton on the Rock, Ludlow, SY8 2HU – The perfect venue for that special occassion – 01568 771 826 – bookings@olddowntonlodge.com www.olddowntonlodge.com FASCINATING INTRIGUING MESMERIC

– SPORT – THoUGH not as common as they once were, independent green grocers are still to be found on a few high streets – three exist in Ludlow alone, if you count Corve Street’s Myriad Organics alongside The Fruit Basket (Church Street) and Farmers Fruit & Vegetable Market on Mill Street – fighting against the majors for a market share of pears and potatoes. Their fruit and veg are often profiled on a carpet of plastic grass, mostly within sturdy plastic crates or, more traditionally, wooden boxes. Add to these a few extra lengths of wood, four pram wheels and some string for steering and a mundane fruit box is transformed into a downhill racer.

It’s a fun pastime that has captivated young minds since the early 1900s, though it’s hard to imagine present day pre-teens bashing together a kart of sorts from bits of scrap rustled from wherever, and then barrelling down their nearest steepest street, for the sheer hell of it.

Build one again for yourself for old time’s sake (if nothing else) and you’ll be pleased to learn that organised circuits exist, up and down the country, for you to pit your crate, pram and string creation against a brace of fellow boxers.

In the UK alone there are hills of varied swoops, turns, descent and camber, tailored to the nation’s soap-box racers – whether experienced or not. Close on two miles, with a gradient of 1 in 6, the longest and fastest circuit in the country runs through the stunning Cairngorms National Park in Scotland and has to be the ultimate test ... with recorded speeds of 70mph it is reserved for the brave.

And not only the brave should apply, but also the technically minded, as a quick glance around the manic mountain paddock of soapers will reward your eye with carbon fibre constructions, roll-over bars, precision ball bearings and adjustable suspension, state-ofthe-art braking, lightweight wheel assemblies and aerodynamics enough to shame F1.

450-miles south and three miles

next Issue

League of dominoes Day at the races Village Hall crawl – November / December –

down the road from Ludlow, is the cattle grid of Hanway Common at Richards Castle. It’s a far lighter affair, compared to the groin-tothe-ground leap-of-faith down the Scottish drop – though speeds close to 40mph still take some digesting. The presence of a bouncy castle, painted faces and a hog roast dresses this particular descent with an atmosphere of village fete – perfect for the belt and braces stab at soap-boxing of old. The heavy wall of straw lining the long and final cambered left-hander that leads most, usually on three wheels, into the home straight to the timing beam, does its best to save competitors from ploughing through the hedge and on down the remainder of the steep fall that lies 1,000ft above sea level.

Contenders here, both junior and senior, are padded in protective suits and boots, gloves and a helmet, and travel from as far as Fareham and Isle of Wight, with less than half rolling in from nearby villages. The Dynamite Boys and Teme Treasure are amongst those flying Ludlow’s flag; the latter was placed second

this year – recording 35mph, with a start to finish time of 41.359 seconds (five seconds ahead of TNT Tyres’ Dynamite Boys) and a mere 0.938 seconds off the winning time (recorded by the 37mph C12 from Wiltshire).

It’s all for charity too; at just £30 to enter your own box, so some showpieces are deliberately designed to raise smiles rather than trophies. Wobbling past the spectators, these cash-raisers are rapidly trailed by far faster and dynamically-agile developments, in the same vein as those far Northern racers – with space-age composites and hand-beaten metalwork; brakes, steering and suspension having been lifted from road-racing bikes and pro karts.

Tripping the start-line timing beam, they gather speed across the cattle grid, down the common, past the lone scaffold tower that accommodates the event’s regal pundit, Sebastian, kicking up as they do an inside front wheel. Then they navigate the sharpest and quickest corners of the downward circuit, before coming to rest on the

grass – hopefully in one piece and the right way up.

Today’s awareness for this sport is a far cry from the 1950s and ‘60s heyday of soap-box derbying, which attracted as many as 70,000 spectators and big-name sponsors.

It’s not exactly talked about these days, seldom promoted and is rarely documented – especially this side of the pond, but a little research will unearth a surprisingly high number of regional and national soap-box races, more than likely right on your very doorstep, just like us.

------------------------------------------Richards Castle Soap-Box Derby was started in 2004 by Humprey Salwey and has so far raised in excess of £50,000 for mainly local charities, including the Marches Family network, which provides play opportunities to disabled children, and Ludlow Carers group.

If you fancy donating a prize, sponsoring a team, volunteering, or placing an advert in the 2015 event programme, please contact Kay Harley on 01584 831648.