Ludford, Shropshire

The place name means the ford at the loud waters ("lud"); Ludlow's name means the hill ("low") by the loud waters.[3] The loud waters are those of the River Teme, which flow rapidly through the area (now largely tamed by weirs).

Ludford,[4] Steventon,[5] and the Sheet[6] are all mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as manors. They existed prior to the town of Ludlow, which grew up during or after the construction of the Norman castle there.

Historically the parish was divided between Shropshire and Herefordshire[7] and the village itself, despite its proximity to the Salopian town of Ludlow, fell within Herefordshire (the county boundary at this point being the River Teme). Steventon and the Sheet on the other hand were in Shropshire.[8] In 1895, as a result of the Local Government Act 1894, the Herefordshire element of the parish of Ludford joined Shropshire, which also meant a transfer from Herefordshire's Wolphy hundred to that of Munslow. Also as a result of the same 1894 Act of Parliament, which reformed civil parishes into the present-day form (with elected parish councils) the combined area became the civil parish of Ludford.[9]

At the time of the Domesday Book, Ludford came within the Herefordshire hundred of Wolphy, whilst Steventon and the Sheet (as well as Ludlow, by way of it being part of Stanton Lacy at the time) came within Culvestan, a Shropshire hundred originating in Anglo-Saxon times but which ended in the reign of Henry I. Steventon, the Sheet and Holdgate Fee (see section below) became part of Munslow hundred after Culvestan's dissolution, as did Ludlow.[8] The Herefordshire element of the parish remained as part of Wolphy hundred throughout until its transfer to Shropshire in 1895, by which time the hundreds of England had become defunct.

During the Wars of the Roses, a minor battle was fought at Ludford in 1459, which became known as the Battle or Rout of Ludford Bridge.

The village contains a former country house – Ludford House[10] – and the remains of its parkland. It originated as the area's manor house and was acquired in 1607 by the Charlton family. Sir Job Charlton, speaker of the House of Commons, was created a baronet in 1686. The Charlton baronetcy however has since become extinct. By the 1840s the parkland (Ludford Park) had become enclosed and used as farmland.[11] Ludford House is no longer one residence and has been divided into separate dwellings.

The turnpike road to Hereford, now the B4361 (named Overton Road in Ludford), was built through the parkland of Ludford House in the 1820s and passes right by the back of the House.[12] Park Road, no longer a through-road, was once the main thoroughfare leading southwards from the ford, and later the bridge, and was until 1836 the main route to Worcester,[11] running via Steventon. Whitcliffe Road begins at the B4361 in the centre of Ludford, heads across Whitcliffe Common towards Mortimer Forest, and runs eventually to Wigmore.

National Cycle Network route 44 runs through the area, avoiding the main roads.

The view north across the Teme from the eastern part of Ludford village, with the skyline of Ludlow dominated by St Laurence's Church.

The civil parish of Ludford (which now covers a slightly different area than the ecclesiastical parish) runs along the south and east boundaries of Ludlow and includes the settlements of Ludford, the Sheet, Foldgate, Rocks Green and Steventon. It is effectively divided by the River Teme into two-halves (with no way to cross the river within the parish boundaries, since the 19th century closure of the ancient road and ford to Steventon). The parish council meets outwith the parish, in Ludlow.

In 2011 the population of the parish was counted at 673[13] – the parish's population count increasingly derives from the housing being constructed on the eastern fringe of Ludlow, which largely accounted for the considerable increase in the parish's population from 395 recorded in 2001; the population of the village of Ludford itself is stable and is less than 150.

In 1884 the part of the parish to the east of Ledwyche Brook was transferred to Bitterley; in the same year the civil parish of East Hamlet was formed out of Stanton Lacy, resulting in Ludford and Stanton Lacy no longer bordering one another. The border between the parishes of Ludlow and Ludford had remained unchanged since medieval times, with Weeping Cross Lane and Rock Lane as the limit of Ludlow to the north of the Teme. In 1901 the area of land, which was becoming suburban, between the railway line and the River Teme (up to Mary's Meadow) was included into Ludlow from Ludford, including the Holdgate Fee (see section below). In 1934 the Whitcliffe (which had been acquired by the burgesses of Ludlow already in the 13th century)[14] and the area north of the railway line, in the vicinity of Gallows Bank were transferred from Ludford to Ludlow. Circa 1967 the borders of Ludlow, Bromfield and Ludlow were re-aligned in the Whitcliffe area, with the Ludford-Ludlow/Bromfield border routed along the Wigmore road, and with an overall transfer of land to Ludford.

In 1987 the civil parish of East Hamlet was abolished and largely absorbed by Ludford,[15] the populous part of this parish having previously been absorbed by the town and civil parish of Ludlow. At the same time the boundary with Ludlow in this eastern area was re-aligned along the A49 by-pass (though Foldgate remains within Ludford). This involved small transfers between Ludlow and Ludford; the 1987 transfers brought all of Rocks Green into Ludford parish (it was previously on the border of East Hamlet and Ludlow) and created a second boundary with Bromfield, with Ludlow now encircled by the two parishes of Ludford and Bromfield.

The total area of the parish (post-1987) is 875 hectares (2,160 acres).[13]

Looking downstream from Ludford Bridge at the Horseshoe Weir. The former ford was just below where the weir now is, roughly where the river turns slightly to the left. The part of Ludlow on the north bank just beyond the ford remained part of the parish of Ludford until 1901.

Holdgate Fee (or Holdgate's Fee) was a small part of the parish on the north side of the Teme which remained as a practical enclave (it continued the parish north across the river, but with no regular means of access without passing through Ludlow) within Ludlow's parish from c. 1200 (when Ludlow parish was formed) to 1901. Ludlow's parish was established upon land mostly from Stanton Lacy, but also with some from Ludford (which had extended in a north-east direction from the village, crossing the ford). Holdgate Fee was a rectangular plot of land located at the foot of Old Street, on the east side of the street, near the site of the former ford. The name came about as for a long period it was an estate in land (a fee) belonging to the manor of Steventon, which in turn was owned by the lordship of Castle Holdgate.[16] Common with the other parts of Ludford's parish that lay north of the Teme, it belonged to Shropshire and the hundred of Culvestan, later Munslow.[8]

The lower stretch of Old Street (below Old Gate) became known as Holdgate Fee, as the fee (the estate owned by Holdgate) encompasses other land in the area, not just the Ludford enclave. Today the street is Old Street for its entire length, the former fee commemorated on the west side of the street by blocks of housing named Upper Fee and Lower Fee. The Ludford Parish Rooms were located at Holdgate Fee.[16]

The Sheet and neighbouring Foldgate are the locations of major new developments on the edge of Ludlow with a retail and business park to provide new jobs and amenities.

Rocks Green has recently had a new housing estate built (at the Dun Cow farm) and is a location for further urban expansion of Ludlow. There is a long-established pub here – the Nelson Inn.[17] The A4117 road runs through Rocks Green and the roundabout where it joins the A49 is named the Rocks Green roundabout. As of 2021, a Sainsbury's supermarket is being constructed by the Rocks Green roundabout.[18]

The Elan aqueduct passes through the parish, largely in tunnel, and crosses the Teme by way of a bridge near Steventon.