As we headed towards Powys for youngest niece’s wedding we realised we were almost through our nearly three hour journey with no lunch stop. Some hasty googling by MOH in the passenger seat showed that Ludlow looked to be our best option, even better we hadn’t passed it yet and it was just thirty minutes or so to our final destination.
Car park found, ticket bought (for just a £1 - bargain) and we headed to where we thought was the centre of town by following the age old phenomenon of seeing where most of the people were heading and coming from. We weren’t wrong, and found ourselves walking past the fantastically ornate Feathers Hotel along the way.
Originally built in 1619 and converted into a hotel fifty years later it’s been welcoming guests since then. It’s famous for its half-timbered Tuda facade which includes carved wooden motifs of the Prince of Wales’ three feathers emblem, hence its name.
It was listed as a Grade 1 building in 1954 and many of the 17th century features remain, though we didn’t venture inside choosing to admire it only from the outside - and what an outside that was.
With lunch ordered and eaten not too far away we were back on our way to the AirBnB which was our base for the wedding. We had an extra day to gather ourselves after the wedding and so after a leisurely breakfast, a visit from some departing family we made our plans for the day, which turned out to be a return visit to Ludlow.
We weren’t disappointed to see more of the town, though on this visit the weather was decidedly chillier than the balmy two days we’d had previously and so our visit was perhaps shorter than it might have been, but a there was still plenty to see as we wandered its streets admiring the half-timbered buildings.
Our impromptu route took us under that sheltered walkway as it looked as if it would start to rain, so it wasn’t until we crossed the road that we could really admire the building’s grandeur, and those two oriel windows on the first floor.
We also had another unplanned discovery, and that was the local wool shop at the end of the sheltered walkway, now wasn’t that fortuitous (and totally unplanned) - I think I must be able to sniff them out!
After a quick visit to the wool shop and leaving with only a couple of Fat Quarters - both green, and both to add to my green collection for leaves on my Floral Fancy - we headed back towards the Buttercross, a market hall dating from 1746 and as you can see below with a vintage style van parked outside, and now very blue skies.
The van was causing a bit of a stir where it’d parked, as the local busses couldn’t get past - eventually it was moved and we very much enjoyed the eye roll from the bus driver as he could resume his route!
It’s easy to see why Sir John Betjeman described Ludlow as “probably the loveliest town in England” for me I think it’s definitely up there, and one that at some stage we’ll most likely be back to visit again.