Ledbury Buildings

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Booth Hall

Of the "Booth Hall" - which is mentioned under the Painted Room - according to Ledbury Parish Church Archives, we learn from 'The Parish of Ledbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth l' by the late Miss S.F Robinson, there may have been built here a Booth Hall to replace the original early 15th century one sited where the Feathers Hotel now is.

Such a use for this building - with its concern for the proper conduct of Ledbury's markets and fairs; market toll gathering; the Court of Piepowder*; control of vagrants and the distribution of poor law monies - might well account for the very particular choice of texts used in the Painted Room, with their emphasis on the good citizen, duty and love.

* The Court of Piepowder
The ancient court of rough and ready justice for all-comers to fairs and markets, particularly vagrants, wayfarers and itinerants -those with 'dusty feet' (from the Old French, 'Pied poudre.')' (Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, New Ed. 1988)

Burgage Hall

Burgage Hall was originally a Congregational Church built in 1852 and that had fallen into disuse by the 1950s. In 1985, it was bought and restored by the Society and is nowadays a popular venue for hire for community use and meetings by organisations in the Ledbury area. For more information about the Burgage Hall, please click here.

And to find out more about Burgage plots please click here.



Cattle Market

Market Street was opened in 1887 by the Ledbury Markets and Fairs Company. It served the new, purpose-built cattle market and was accessed from both New Street and Bye Street. it is still a private, unadopted road.

When the Cattle Market was closed in 1999 the market site was sold and later developed for a new health centre and doctor's surgery.

House on Stilts

The House on Stilts, at Upper Cross (also known more recently as Top Cross), which is at the junction of High Street/New Street/The Southend and Worcester Road, is one the oldest timber-framed buildings in Ledbury. The pavement in New Street is under the overhanging side of the building. It is thought that the ground floor was originally exposed to the street and was used as a market hall.

Ledbury Dispensary

Ledbury Dispensary, established in 1824, was in New Street.

(Reproduced by permission of Michael Lever), the Statement of Accounts, 7 January 1864, resolved that Dr John Henry Wood be appointed Medical Officer in conjunction with his father, M A Wood Esq. The number of patients attended from 1 October 1862 to 31 December 1863 was 675. The List of Subscribers includes Earl Somers (of Eastnor Castle) Robert Biddulph, and others.

Dr Sylvia Pinches (England's Past for Everyone, Herefordshire Victoria County History, formerly based at the Heritage Centre, in Church Lane, Ledbury) has kindly provided a few brief notes about documents at Herefordshire Record Office:

"HRO BO92/60 Overseers Minutes 1822-1838
1823 29 December ‘Resolved unanimously that it will be to the benefit of this Parish to contribute a sum not exceeding sixty pounds a year in aid of the Ledbury Dispensary established for the benefit of the sick poor of this parish in lieu of the present allowance made to the parish Doctor, and extra expenses for poor lying-in women’

‘Resolved that the above named allowance of sixty pounds be paid pit of the Poor Rates to the treasurers of the Dispensary for the year ending Lady –Day 1825 and that the same be paid by half-yearly instalments – the first payment to be made at Michaelmas next.

The accounts in this book show regular payments up until the new poor law.

HRO AB86/2/D9, 16-17 See HCC Clerks Department (green files), Gov. 2
15 Dec. 1915 agreement between Bickham, Ledbury Cottage Hospital, & HCC to let 2 rooms, Parish Nurse rooms in Cottage Hospital as dispensary £15 p.a.
D/6 26 Feb. 1916 and D/17 7 March 1916 reducing rent to £10.

HRO Y149 Photograph and article. "

Library

The original building was demolished in 1892 to make way for the new building between 1892 and 1896 of the Barrett Browning Memorial Institute, which houses the Library.
The original building was of substantial timber-framed construction and was used in conjunction with the tannery at the rear, belonging to the Hankins family.

Market House

Originally, there were 3 Market Houses in Ledbury. One was in The Southend, opposite The Park, the home of the Biddulph family and another opposite St Katherine's Hospital Chapel. Neither had rooms above and both were demolished in about 1820.

The third, The Market House, in High Street, and which was known as Lower or Wheat Market, was built in about 1668 by John Abel. Upon 16 oak pillars, it has a room above. An old deed directs "that the rent of the Market House shall be expended in providing yearly twelve coats or gowns for twelve poor persons of Ledbury, to be delivered every year at Christmas at the direction and appointment of the Rector and Churchwardens".

When the Market House was built, a shop was made under the staircase leading to the upper part of the building and which was let at about £2 a year. However, “ in consequence of its situation rendering it a public nuisance, and that by serving as a wall for the playing at fives", it encouraged the resort of idle and disorderly persons, particularly on Sundays so it was removed by order of the Vestry, August 16th, 1818.

Old Grammar School (Heritage Centre)

This five-bay, timber framed, two-storey range, laid out on an approximate east-west orientation, is a fine example of a timber-framed Tudor building of the late 15th century.

It has a deep jetty along the south side. The building, which was  restored in 1977-1978 near to its original form, clearly had some public function rather than being purely domestic. It has been suggested that it may have been built as a guild hall and only later used as a grammar school. Early on it became a school of chantry foundation (a place where prayers were said and masses sung for the benefit of the donor). It was re-founded in the 16th century and was later re-endowed and renamed the King Edward VI Grammar School. The school finally closed around 1860.

An unusual feature is the smoke bay at the west end, which may have had a service function; that and the position of the offset cross passage tends to support the proposition that the west end bay was the ‘low’ end of the building and that the east end bay, with its separate entrance, was the high end.

Painted Room - Church Lane

No. 1 Church Lane is one of the most interesting yet mysterious buildings in Ledbury. The spot where it stands, at the junction of the 'kings highway' and the east/west track from Hereford Cathedral to Ledbury Parish Church, has undoubtedly been the site of continuous human activity for more than a thousand years. In Elizabethan times, Ledbury was a small town of some 600 to 650 people, and the market and religious centre for a further 880 rural parishioners; some 1500 in all. Yet, despite having records for Ledbury going back to 1557 and beyond, for this building - unlike others around it, we have as yet found no exact record; neither its purpose nor who lived here.

By the end of the 15th century painted wallpapers stuck directly to the walls are known to have existed in England but none have, as yet, been found to survive. By the 16th century, in the mansions and great houses of England, wall hangings of tapestry, painted cloth or leather had long served both as decoration and draught ~ protectors.

A 16th century Dutch or German School picture in what was, until recently, the East German State Art Collection at Kassel, of Queen Elizabeth I receiving emissaries from the Netherlands in her Privy Chamber in c.1585, shows the room had wall-hangings strikingly like those imitated here; a valance along each wall at ceiling height covering the tops of the main hangings that reached from ceiling to floor, all decorated with flowers and leaves on a dark blue/black background.

In Ledbury, however, there are notable differences. This was not the 'great house' of a queen or a rich magnate but the working home of a townsman who copied, in paint, the trappings of importance.

Below the Painted Room, the Town Clerk's office (not on exhibition) is a panelled, carved and columned room. In this upper chamber the 'hangings' have been painted only to some 3 feet from the floor. Originally below that was a painted dado (the one remaining part of it can be seen in the far corner beyond the fireplace) intended to represent another panelled room, this time fashionable with wall cloths.

Significantly, the texts were executed by a hand far more competent in lettering than that which painted the main decorations. Even the best painters of the 16th century were but 'artisans' who worked, anonymously, to order. Their work is identifiable by style and brushstroke, but this room in Ledbury is not of that level of competence and we shall, almost certainly, find it impossible to name the executant. There was, however, a purpose both to the painting and the texts -a clear intention to impress on the beholder the tenets of Psalm and Proverb.

According to Ledbury Parish Church Archives, we learn from 'The Parish of Ledbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth l' by the late Miss S.F Robinson, there may have been built here a Booth Hall to replace the original early 15th century one sited where the Feathers Hotel now is. Such a use for this building - with its concern for the proper conduct of Ledbury's markets and fairs; market toll gathering; the Court of Piepowder*; control of vagrants and the distribution of poor law monies -might well account for the very particular choice of texts used in the Painted Room, with their emphasis on the good citizen, duty and love.

* The Court of Piepowder
The ancient court of rough and ready justice for all-comers to fairs and markets, particularly vagrants, wayfarers and itinerants -those with 'dusty feet' (from the Old French, 'Pied poudre.')' (Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, New Ed. 1988)

St Katherine's Hall Chapel

This chapel was used by the inmates of the hospital. The clock on the front, facing High street, is one of the oldest working clocks in the country.

St Michael and All Angels Church

The church of St Michael and All Angels - which, at 187 feet in length, Pevsner described as the "premier parish church of Herefordshire" - is thought to date back to the 11th century.

St. Michael's Church is one of only seven in Herefordshire with a tower separate from the nave. The tower itself dates from about 1230, and the spire from 1733.

There are eight bells in the tower dating from 1690 to 1929. The earliest two date from 1690 and were made by Rudhalls. The Tenor is 50.25" in diameter, weighs 22cwt, dates from 1736 and is tuned to the key of E flat.

The tower also has a carillon, which plays one of seven well-known hymn tunes at the hours of 9.00am 12.00noon, 3.00pm and 6.00pm every day.

The total height of tower and spire is 202 feet. It is floodlit, and visible from a wide area of the town and beyond. You can sponsor the lighting for a week, for example to mark a special family occasion or an anniversary.

For more information, please visit Ledbury Parish Church website.

The Master's House

One of the oldest buildings in Ledbury, The Master’s House was the home of the Master of St Katherine’s Almshouses, which, with St Katherine’s Hall and Chapel and a 17th century timber-framed barn, form part of the St Katherine’s Hospital site, which occupies about 2 acres on the west side of High Street. Originally, the hospital site occupied almost two-thirds of the western frontage of the market place in Ledbury (‘the High Street).

Those buildings and the surrounding brick and stone walls are more important collectively than as individual buildings, being a very rare surviving example of a hospital complex.

To provide more information, we have compiled a special photo-book which you can obtain free of charge by clicking here.


Herefordshire Council's archaeological team is undergoing a dig at the Master's House, as part of ongoing plans to refurbish the historic building and create a new library. The pictures below were taken in January 2009. The man in the last photo is Tim Hoverd BA AIFA, Archaeological Projects Officer for Herefordshire Council.

Tinsmiths: "one of the most intriguing and exciting new buildings in Herefordshire"

"Alex Clive is not, professionally speaking, an architect. He has, however, designed and built one of the most intriguing and exciting new buildings in Herefordshire, one that deserves to set a precedent in the way we nurture development in market towns."

To read the full article in The Guardian, please click on the link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/jul/02/architecture.communities

New House