At the centre of the early settlement was the church, approached from the main roads across a triangular area, perhaps used as a market, which was later in-filled to create the modern Church Lane and Church Street. In 1086, Ledbury was still a rural manor belonging to the bishop of Hereford. In the 1120s or 1130s the bishop created a new town or borough along the main roads. A new wedge-shaped market place was established in what is now High Street. Houses soon extended north along the Homend and then along Southend.
Bye Street was probably developed next, and finally New Street, where houses had been built by 1186. This town plan, established in the twelfth century, was hardly altered until the building of the canal and railway in the first half of the nineteenth century and can be clearly seen in the town centre today.
The opening of the Gloucester to Ledbury section of the Hereford – Gloucester Canal in 1798 and of the Ledbury to Hereford section in 1845 led to some development on the western edge of the medieval town. A greater stimulus to expansion was provided by the opening of the Worcester to Hereford railway, with its station north of the Homend, in 1861 and then of the Gloucester to Ledbury railway, built partly along the line of the former canal, in 1885.
New streets were laid out, mainly west of, or downhill from, the line of the Homend, High Street and the Southend. Victoria and Albert Roads, named for the Queen and her consort, were built in the 1850s. Despite the declining population between then and c.1900, new streets including Newbury Park, Belle Orchard, Oatleys and Woodleigh Roads and part of Bank Crescent had been developed or laid out by the early twentieth century.
In 1851 the area around Lower Road was called New Town. By 1886, that along the modern Bridge Street was Happy Land, perhaps a name chosen to attract new residents. Much of this nineteenth-century development was carried out by the Ledbury Benefit Building Society which was founded before 1852 and wound up in 1914.
There was little change to the street plan in the first half of the twentieth century, when the population remained nearly static at between 3259 and 3693, although existing streets were further built up.
As a result of the 1919 Housing Act, council houses were built in Homend Crescent in 1921, and others followed on the Bank Crescent estate in the later 1920s and 1930s. More council houses were built in the early 1950s in Long Acre, Margaret Road and Queensway, the last two streets named for Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret, continuing the ‘royal’ theme started with Victoria and Albert roads.
The major expansion of the town came in the third quarter of the twentieth century when the Deer Park and New Mills estates were built between the town and its new by-pass; the population changed from 3911 in 1971 to 4549 in 1981 and 8839 in 2001 and just under 10,000 in 2010.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
Originally Bishop's Street, after the Bishop's Palace at 28-32 Bye Street, Bye Street is considered by some as Ledbury's worst disaster, because most of the original buildings have been demolished.
16 Bye Street (Listed Building Grade II) is the oldest surviving domestic building in Ledbury.
16 Bye Street (Listed Building Grade II) is the oldest surviving domestic building in Ledbury.
Church Lane is the oldest street in Ledbury and was originally the main street leading from the church into town.
Church Street is the oldest street in Ledbury and was originally the main street leading from the Church into town. At the east end (by the church) is Abbots Lodge, a 13th building that obnly became a vicarage for a few years at the end of the 16th century. 
The Deer Park estate was named from the medieval bishops’ deer park, so called as late as the nineteenth century, and which lay on the other side of the Southend.
The prestigious Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature is presented annually in her memory by the Children's Book Circle, a society of publishers.
Her most widely known work is the children’s hymn: "Morning has Broken”* written in 1931 to an old Gaelic tune associated with the Scottish village Bunessan. It was later popularised by the folk singer Cat Stevens. Her other popular hymn is the Advent carol "People, Look East!", usually sung to an old French melody, and a favourite with children's choirs.
*Click here for Youtube video of Cat Stevens singing
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
Jubilee Drive was created by Stephen Ballard and was built on his own land on the western slopes of the Malvern Hills. Its gentle curves reveal magnificent views over the Herefordshire countryside and the canal and railway routes which he engineered.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
(to be continued) Mabel was the maid of ? whose mistress set up in Ledbury after hearing the church bells ring unaided
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
The developers of the New Mills estate originally proposed to continue the medieval theme by naming their development Capella Court, after Richard de Capella, bishop of Hereford 1121 – 7 and the supposed founder of Ledbury. The name finally chosen derives from the ‘New Mills’, a water mill recorded from 1602, which stood north-west of the new estate.
A modern housing estate developed during the 1990s, many of the roads are named after types of hops, such as Golding and Challenger; and poets, such as Browning, Farjeon and Bronte.
New Street is one of the oldest streets in Ledbury. It is part of the planned medieval town, developed by the bishops of Hereford in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
New Street was not as built up as Bye Street and until the early 20th century retained a number of orchards. During the 19th century, although there were brickyards at the western end of the street, near the canal, and some craft workshps nearer the High Street, it had not such a workaday feel as Bye Street.
In 1851 New Street was an area populated by professional people, such as veterinary surgeons, general practitioners, chemists, accountants and clerks, as well as modest manufacturers such as a coach maker. Many other people made smaller items or provided other services. There were boot makers and basket makers, blacksmiths and tailors, as well as a cooper.
At this time the recently established Police Station was in New Street, with its resident officer. Little had changed in 1861 and only a few of the influx of workers for the railway line which was a-building lived in New Street.
In 1901 the make up of the street remained a mixture of professional men with small tradesmen and shopkeepers, the largest employer being Hopkins' coach-builders.
New Street was not as built up as Bye Street and until the early 20th century retained a number of orchards. During the 19th century, although there were brickyards at the western end of the street, near the canal, and some craft workshps nearer the High Street, it had not such a workaday feel as Bye Street.
In 1851 New Street was an area populated by professional people, such as veterinary surgeons, general practitioners, chemists, accountants and clerks, as well as modest manufacturers such as a coach maker. Many other people made smaller items or provided other services. There were boot makers and basket makers, blacksmiths and tailors, as well as a cooper.
At this time the recently established Police Station was in New Street, with its resident officer. Little had changed in 1861 and only a few of the influx of workers for the railway line which was a-building lived in New Street.
In 1901 the make up of the street remained a mixture of professional men with small tradesmen and shopkeepers, the largest employer being Hopkins' coach-builders.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.
South Parade, off the Southend, was developed in the 1820s by the Biddulph family.
By 1966 other streets, including Horse Lane Orchard, Mabels Furlong, Lawnside Road, Oatleys Crescent and Terrace, the Langlands, Northmead, Audley Croft, and Plaisters End had been laid out by private developers.