Ledbury
Ledbury is a bustling historic market town in Herefordshire, close to Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester. A pretty Tudor remnant, packed with many half-timbered houses in cobbled lanes set around a central market square.
Ledbury © Travel About Britain
This pleasant, unspoilt place, is blessed with a wealth of charming historic buildings. A delightful old Market House timbered in herringbone pattern and supported on oak pillars dominates the old market place. The mellow stoned St. Katherine's Hospital and almshouses opposite date from the 14th-c.
Behind the Market House is Church Lane, which leads up to the medieval Church of St Michael and All Angels. The cobbled lane is lined with many fine Tudor and Jacobean timbered houses with overhanging gables. Inside the church is a collection of monuments, brasses and tombs from almost every period dating back to the 12th-c.
Ledbury Market House © TAB
Farther along the High Street stands the splendid three story 16th-c timbered Feathers Hotel. One of hundreds of Grade listed buildings in Ludlow. The town also boasts several other attractive timbered inns including The Talbot and the Prince of Wales.
The Feathers Hotel © TAB
Many of the 16th/17th-c black and white buildings on the High Street have had brick or stucco frontages added in the 18th-c.
The restored timber-framed Grammar School in Church Lane is home to a museum that charts the development of the town from Anglo Saxon times.
Ledbury Park is another very fine timbered house in the centre of Ledbury, built by Lord Biddulph in 1590. It is set at the corner of a large park dating back to the 17th-c.
The town has strong literary associations, renowned as the birthplace of John Masefield, poet laureate from 1930 until 1967. Also a favourite abode of Brownings and Wordsworth.
Ledbury is set in rich green water meadows just below the slopes of the Malvern Hills. One of England's important hop growing regions. Just to the east of the town is Eastnor Castle, a Norman and Gothic-style fairytale mansion built between 1881 and 1924 by the 1st Earl of Somers (open to public).
Map of Ledbury
The Midlands
