Two Ludlow historic monuments remain on Heritage at Risk Register maintained by English Heritage, the town walls and the Buttercross.
Ludlow’s Buttercross
The Buttercross is described as: “Repair scheme in progress… Functionally redundant buildings with new use agreed but not yet implemented.” The building is in the lowest risk category (F on a scale of A to F). Nevertheless, I am disappointed that the Buttercross is still on the at risk register. Ludlow Town Council has been doing an excellent job of repairing and converting the building into a heritage centre. The building is no longer at risk. I’ll write to English Heritage asking them to remove the building from next year’s edition of the risk register.
The heritage champion lists Ludlow’s town walls among its national “Heritage at Risk Priority Sites” for 2014. The register describes the town walls as suffering from “Slow decay; no solution agreed”. The walls are in the third highest risk category (C).
Ludlow’s unrepaired town wall
English Heritage is spot on here. Progress on negotiations for repairs has been excruciatingly slow, with no firm plan yet in place. There is every danger of further falls.
The other monument in Ludlow that I think should be on the Heritage at Risk Register is the cobbled surface on Broad Street. The cobbles were laid in 1829-30 according to a scheme by Thomas Telford. Over the years, they have been severely damaged and badly repaired by utilities contractors.
The Broad Street Cobbles
Unfortunately, the cobbles are only listed at Grade II [1] and that’s not high enough for inclusion on the risk register.
[1] Structures for inclusion on the Heritage at Risk Register must be listed grade I or II* (or grade II in London) or be a structural scheduled monument with upstanding masonry remains.