Local Ludlow Your History Run Down
January 2022
Coats of arms in the windows of St Laurence’s Church
It is not particularly unusual to find medieval coats of arms in the windows of English churches, and in many cases we can recognise these shields and identify the family to which they belong. But, as successive generations used the same family coat of arms, it is not often that we can attribute these arms to specific individuals with any certainty.
A rare exception can be found in the windows in the north aisle of St Laurence’s Church, where there are three coats of arms dating from around 1320, the oldest glass in the church. Last month’s article referred to the ownership of Ludlow being divided for 114 years after it was inherited by two heiresses in 1244. St Laurence’s formed part of the moiety, or fraction, that was in the hands of Theobald de Verdun who died in 1316. He is thought to have been responsible for rebuilding the north aisle and these shields commemorate him and his two wives.
The central shield is Verdon – gold with a fretty pattern. On the right is his first wife, Maud Mortimer, who died in 1315. She was the sister of the famous, or infamous, Roger Mortimer. Having forced the abdication of King Edward II, Roger ruled England for four years with Queen Isabella, before being executed for ‘assuming royal powers’ in 1330.To the left of the Verdun shield is that of his second wife, the famous heiress Elizabeth de Clare.Theobald was her second husband, and she was to marry again and gave birth to a child by each of her three husbands. Elizabeth was the Founder of Clare College in Cambridge. When the Cambridge ‘bumps’ are held on the River Cam, the boats belonging to Clare are easily recognised as their oars sport the three red chevrons that appear here on the Clare arms.
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February 2022
When the Ownership of Ludlow was Split in Two
Our last two articles have both referred to the period during which the ownership of Ludlow was split between two families; here we describe the circumstances in a little more detail.
Previous articles have recounted the early history of the town and the building, at the end of the 11th century, of Ludlow Castle by Walter de Lacy (d.1085), who had been granted Ludlow shortly after 1066, and his sons.Apart from a short period, Ludlow was held by the descendants of Walter de Lacy for about 180 years. When his great-great grandson, another Walter, died in 1241 he was a very old man, possibly in his late 70s; unfortunately, his only son and heir, Gilbert de Lacy, had died in 1230 leaving a son and two daughters, Maud and Margaret. Even more unfortunately, his grandson had also died sometime in the previous three years, leaving his two sisters, Maud and Margaret, as their grandfather’s heirs.
In the absence of a male heir, the inheritance was divided between the surviving female heirs, in this case the two sisters. Maud, who inherited the half of Ludlow that included the Castle, married Geoffrey de Geneville; Margaret, who owned the other half, married John de Verdun. When a female heir married, her lands were merged into those of her husband and descended to their children. Hence the ownership of Ludlow was divided into two, referred to as the de Geneville and deVerdun moieties.This division remained until Roger Mortimer, second earl of March, who had inherited the de Geneville portion, purchased the other one in 1358.
Image:The coat of arms of Geoffrey de Geneville that includes de Lacy. From the Ludlow Castle Heraldic Roll
© Friends of Ludlow Museum.
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March 2022
Two young girls placed in a Priory
Last month’s article described how, in the absence of a male heir, the de Lacy inheritance was split into two portions (moieties) between the grand-daughters of Walter de Lacy (d.1241).
He had lived to an old age, with his son having died before him. The ownership of Ludlow was split between Maud and Margaret, with Maud inheriting the half that included Ludlow Castle. In 1244, Maud married one of the king’s favourite companions, Peter de Geneva; however, he died in 1249. Within three years, Maud married Geoffrey de Geneville, who had been encouraged by the king to come to England in 1251 from his home in Champagne. Geoffrey soon became a close friend of the Lord Edward, the heir to the throne, and remained fiercely loyal to the royal family for nearly 65 years.
History, though, repeated itself, but this time with a different outcome. Like his grandfather-in-law, Geoffrey lived to an old age, dying in 1314, well into his 80s. Although Geoffrey and Maud had several sons, they all died before Geoffrey. His heir had been his second son; however, Peter died in 1292, leaving three daughters, Joan (aged 6), Beatrice (5) and Maud (1). Geoffrey now faced the prospect of his inheritance being split up between his three granddaughters, to be taken into the families of their husbands; however, unlike Walter, he arranged matters to avoid this happening. Geoffrey placed his two younger granddaughters in Aconbury Priory, leaving the eldest, Joan, as the sole heir. Thus, when Joan de Geneville, aged 15, married the 14-year-old Roger Mortimer of Wigmore in 1301, she took all of the de Geneville inheritance, including Ludlow Castle and the de Geneville portion of Ludlow, into the Mortimer family.
Image: The Mortimer/de Geneville coat of arms. From the Ludlow Castle Heraldic Roll © Friends of Ludlow Museum.
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April 2022
HMS Ludlow Castle
For much of the 18th centur y the Royal Navy had three successive warships named HMS Ludlow Castle. The first, HMS
Ludlow, renamed Ludlow Castle in 1705, mainly served with Admiral Byng in the Mediterranean and was broken up in 1721. She was replaced by a 40-gunner built at Woolwich which served mainly on the Canadian East coast and in the West Indies where she was decommissioned in 1743. The following year a new 44-gun warship named HMS Ludlow Castle was launched at Rotherhithe. She had a complement of 250 men and her first captain was George Brydges Rodney, who was to enjoy a very successful naval career becoming Rear Admiral of Great Britain and being awarded the title of Baron. The family later had local connections in that Berrington Hall passed into the ownership of the family through the marriage of Rodney’s son to Anne Harley.
Under Rodney the Ludlow Castle was deployed as an escort for British merchantmen trading with Portugal which were regular targets of French privateers. In the summer of 1745, she took part in the action against the Scottish Jacobite rebels supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie who had landed in Northern Scotland with a French force. Her job was to escort merchantmen supplying British troops with arms and artillery and patrol the coast for escaping rebels. In November Rodney cleverly decoyed over 50 rebels on board by adopting the ruse of flying a French flag.These prisoners were then transported to GreatYarmouth to be tried. For the next 25 years the Ludlow Castle served in the West Indies. On returning to England for a refit in 1771 she was found to be so rotten and eaten by worms that she was beyond repair. She was broken up in Portsmouth and the ship name Ludlow Castle was not revived.
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May 2022
Mayhem, Murder and Marriage
The powerful Mortimer family (owners of Ludlow during the 14th century) acquired lands in the Marches of Wales, creating tempestuous relationships with the native rulers of the various kingdoms and districts of Wales. The Mortimers’ first focus was on acquiring the district of Maelienydd (a chunk of modern-day Radnorshire), which ignited bitter feuds with the native rulers. One Welsh ruler, Cadwallon ap Madog, was murdered in 1179 by the men of Roger Mortimer (d.1214) whilst he was returning under safe conduct from the King’s Court. Roger was imprisoned by the King and his men executed. During the first half of the 13th century, when Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, prince of Gwynedd in north Wales, extended his power over all of Wales, Ralph Mortimer (d.1246) married one of his daughters, Gwladys Ddu. Future generations of the Mortimers would be descended from the princes of Gwynedd; however, this did not prevent the clash between two cousins, both grandsons of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, Roger Mortimer (d.1282) and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales. For nearly two decades Llywelyn had the upper hand, seizing lands and castles: however, events eventually turned against him. Roger Mortimer was a commander of one of the armies of Edward I that defeated Llywelyn in 1277. In 1282, when Llywelyn rebelled, it was two of Roger’s sons who were involved in his death in a battle near Builth Wells. During the Owain Glyn Dŵr rebellion in the early 1400s, Sir Edmund Mortimer was defeated in battle and captured. Through marriage, the Mortimers now had a claim to the English throne which had recently been usurped by King Henry IV. Wary of the Mortimers, the King refused to allow Sir Edmund to be ransomed. Languishing in captivity, Sir Edmund married a daughter of Glyn Dŵr and proclaimed his nephew the rightful King of England. Eventually, the rebellion petered out and Sir Edmund died during the siege of Harlech in 1408.
Image: Owain Glyn Dŵr monument in Corwen
© Philip Hume.
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June 2022
The Changing Uses of Corve Street Mill
In the late eleventh century the area now known as Ludlow was part of Stanton (Lacy) where, in the Domesday Book of 1086, three mills were recorded. At the time a mill and its associated weir would have been
a town’s largest and most valuable piece of industrial plant. Capital expenditure required to build and maintain them was considerable, hence most were owned by nobility. It is not known where Stanton’s mills were located, but it is possible that one may have been near the northern end of that which is now Corve Street. Certainly, there was a mill there in 1241 as John Lestrange was ordered to rebuild it ‘if it seemed to him more profitable to do so than to let the site’. Milling was a heavy-duty process and after many years of use the buildings had to be replaced. In 1261 Corve Mill was mentioned in correspondence between John de Verdun and Geoffrey de Geneville. By 1444 it was part of the town’s cloth industry and was a fulling mill.
Edward IV’s 1461 Charter for the town resulted in Ludlow Corporation owning Corve Mill. By the early 1600s, though, there was competition.Thomas Lewkenor built a malt mill nearby, which was operated by manual labour rather than waterpower and could grind 200 bushels of grain a month. Later in the 1800s the Corve mill was used to extract tannin from the bark of trees for the local tanner y. However, now there is little evidence of any of this activity, as in 1939 the weir was purchased and removed. Ludlow’s General Purposes Committee paid £3 19s 10d, which was described as their share of the cost, based on frontage of the river. The surveyor recorded that the County Council’s scheme would help to prevent the flooding of the cottages in the area.
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July 2022
How to Build a Castle (because you’ve always wanted to know…)
An interest in medieval history is often rooted in childhood memories of family outings to the ruins of the medieval castles and abbeys
that dominate our landscape. The majestic ruins also prompt us to wonder how they were built, given the construction techniques and materials available nearly a thousand years ago. How were castles designed to both withstand and repel attack, and also to provide accommodation for the lord and lady, their family, retinues and workers? How did the designs change in response to the evolving circumstances of the inhabitants over the castles’ long lifetimes?
The Mortimer History Society has organised a special day on Saturday 30th July to explore how castles were built using Ludlow Castle as a case study.
Ludlow is an excellent castle in which to explore how it was first built and how it evolved across the centuries. It’s one of the very few castles that was built in stone from the outset, when the walls and towers of what are now the inner bailey were built towards the end of the 11th century. Further building stages came later, both to enlarge and enhance the overall size of the castle and improve the living accommodation.The size of the castle was more than trebled when a new curtain wall, with towers and a new gatehouse, was built to create a large outer bailey; later, the massive accommodation blocks and the Great Hall were built to create the magnificent North Range that is one of the finest in the country.
See the advert for 30th July, to the right: for full details of the programme and to book tickets, please go to www.mortimerhistorysociety.org.uk/events.
Aerial photo of Ludlow Castle
© Paul R Davis
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August 2022
Broad Street: Encroachments and Penthouses
Broad Street has been described as the ‘fayrest part’ of ‘the most beautiful town in England’, and few Ludlow residents would disagree. It seems to have been laid out around the time that the first Ludford bridge was built in the early 13th century, to give direct access to the town centre. When the town wall was erected later in the 13th century, the new road was cut in two by the Broad Gate.
Burgage plots were laid out on both sides of the street and, though the properties in Broad Street were mainly privately owned, the street itself, and the footpaths, remained the property of the lord of the manor, first the Lacys and later the Mortimers. Today’s profusion of A-boards and coffee shops on the pavement is by no means a new situation. Shops have always been tempted to spill out onto the street, but in the past they were fined for doing so, as the pavements didn’t belong to them.The lord of the manor didn’t generally do much to stop these encroachments on his land, because the fines he levied provided him with a healthy regular income. As late as the 17th century, and possibly much later, rents for encroachments still formed a significant part of the income of Ludlow Corporation. By this time some burgage holders, keen to increase the size of their properties, but conscious of the restrictions at ground level, extended their upper floors over the footpath.This created covered ways known locally as penthouses. The penthouses on the east side at the top of Broad Street are rare survivors of this clever solution, the present cast- iron posts being erected in 1795.
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September 2022
Castle in the Marches of Wales
The Welsh Marches had the highest concentration of castles of anywhere in medieval Europe
The article in the July edition described how Ludlow Castle was one of the few castles to be built in stone from the outset, and how it continued to evolve over the centuries as it was adapted and rebuilt to
meet the changing requirements of its owners. At the conference at the end of July, all the speakers commented that Ludlow is one of the best castles in the country and how lucky we are to have it on the doorstep.
Of course, whilst Ludlow Castle is actually in the town, we are lucky to have many more castles nearby – Wigmore, Richards Castle, Radnor, Clifford, Stokesay, Clun, Dolforwyn, Montgomery – to name just eight of the many in the area. As the map illustrates, the Welsh Marches had the highest concentration of castles of anywhere in medieval Europe.There were two main reasons for that: first, one of the regal powers exercised by the Marcher lords was the right to build castles without requiring the permission of the King, which was needed elsewhere; consequently, as they had the right to build castles, they did so.The second reason, though, was that the ongoing conflicts with the independent native rulers of Wales meant that castles were needed as necessary defensive and offensive fortifications for longer in the Welsh Marches than elsewhere in England.
We now have a fascinating legacy of earthworks and ruined buildings that connect us with our medieval history. Aspects of this are being explored at a Mortimer History Society conference on Saturday 8th October in the Ludlow Assembly Rooms.
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October 2022
A Grand Concert at Ludlow Assembly Rooms
A year ago this month, Ludlow Assembly Rooms reopened after refurbishment for live performances, cinema and community uses. First
opened in 1840, the building held assemblies patronised by the gentry, charity balls, concerts and meetings and, as now, had space for other uses, a subscription newsroom, a stationery shop and a billiard room.
It was the venue for many special events including, on 2nd August 1860, a Grand Concert to celebrate the reopening of St Laurence’s after restoration and raise funds for its organ. Eddowes’s Shrewsbury Journal contains a lengthy and often amusing account reporting that nearly all the nobility and gentry from miles around attended so that the room was completely filled with ‘a galaxy of bright eyes, cheerful countenances, and elegant dresses’. Proceedings started at 8 o’clock and the programme consisted of operatic excerpts, popular songs, and orchestral pieces performed by a mixture of largely amateur and professional musicians brought together for the occasion.
The writer gave a fairly exacting and not always complimentary review. The musicians played a Beethoven symphony ‘with a taste and delicacy not often found in provincial hands, especially when almost entirely amateurs’ and despite one ‘very hasty rehearsal’ the chorus performed ‘with wonderful precision and correctness’. Others were not so admired. A new work for four voices and piano ‘deserved and required better treatment than it received at the hands of its exponents. A little more practice would doubtless have made a difference’. He welcomed the rare public performance by a lady amateur pianist as something to be promoted. While considering her rather highbrow choice of music admirable he couldn’t ‘help thinking it was an unfortunate one as far as the public were concerned’. After her performance while there were still three other pieces in the programme, ‘as it was now verging on midnight they were judiciously omitted and a most charming concert was brought to conclusion by the National Anthem’.
Photo: Ludlow Assembly Rooms auditorium
For all Assembly Rooms events visit:
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November 2022
Castle Mill
The feudal system that controlled a town during the 1200s–1400s dictated that everyone who wanted to grind grain for bread or beer, or carry out fulling to produce cloth, had to use the local Lord’s mills no matter what the cost. In 1331, probably as a result of Ludlow’s expansion, the Mortimer family saw an opportunity to build a new weir and mill near the castle. It was clearly successful as, in 1368, it was handling more grain and producing more income than others in the town. In 33 weeks, Castle Mill had produced 335 bushels of grain whereas the total for the Mill Street and Old Street mills was only 362 bushels. For many years Castle Mill remained dominant in the town, and in 1424 it brought in a rent of £8 6s 8d for the Mortimers. In 1632, despite being owned and leased for more than 170 years by Ludlow Corporation, it was still called the Lord’s mills.
Although there was only one weir, there were two water wheels.These were nominally side by side, but were known as the upper and lower mill. In 1724/5 the upper was ‘two water grist mills’ (grist is grain for grinding) and the lower a ‘water corn mill with a malt mill formerly erected’.
By the 1840s there had been many changes as Samuel Stead, builder of the Assembly Rooms, had a sawmill on the site. In 1854 Chaplin Hodges had installed an iron foundry with iron dressing mills, a blower or smelt mill, a cottage for the grinder, plus pigs and horses. Later the site was used to generate some of the town’s electricity. By 1961 an open- air swimming pool had been built.The weir is now known as Dinham, and the remaining buildings are part of the Millennium Green.
Photo: Dinham Millennium Green
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December 2022
The ‘Lord of Misrule’ and the ‘Boy Bishop’
People have always sought to liven up the dark days around Christmas. Today we have office parties and big family gatherings, but these are feeble efforts compared to what went on in earlier times. Indeed this was often a period when a great deal of disruption was accepted and enjoyed.
The normal social hierarchy was turned upside- down and wild behaviour was widely tolerated. Role-reversal was an important part of these festivities, and in medieval grand houses a person was often elected as the ‘Lord of Misrule’ to organise and preside over the Christmas festivities. Not surprisingly, these were often drunken, raucous events which got out of hand. Rather than deprecate these unseemly practices, the Church entered into the spirit of the thing with enthusiasm. The ‘Feast of Fools’ was celebrated between 26th and 28th December and involved junior clergy swapping places with their superiors. The main purpose seems to have been to let everyone have fun. The ecclesiastical liturgy was lampooned with hilarious effect but, inevitably, things often went too far. Eventually the main form of role-reversal became the election of a ‘Boy Bishop’ to ‘rule’ from 6th December to the 28th. Usually chosen from among the choristers, he was given episcopal robes and a mitre. During his period of office, he performed many duties, preaching sermons and leading processions in the town. All of these medieval practices were finally outlawed by Elizabeth I, though Hereford Cathedral reintroduced the role of ‘Boy Bishop’ in 1972.
St Laurence’s church in Ludlow is very fortunate in having rare wooden carved images of both a ‘Lord of Misrule’ and a ‘Boy Bishop’ (shown in image). Dating from around 1450, they can be found back- to-back in the chancel, halfway along the choir stalls on the right-hand side.
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