How it was.

Ledbury is said to have derived its name from the Welsh Led meaning a vale side. But it’s more probably from the river Leddon which runs below the town to join the Severn. Apparently in the Domesday Book it was called Liedeberge.
            The town is full of old half timbered buildings and the one that catches everyone’s attention as soon as they enter the town centre must be the market house built on huge oak stilts. It’s now a bus and coach stop as well as a meeting place for kids with nothing much to do.
            I don’t intend going into the full history of the town and all the fine old buildings, there are plenty of other websites and books which do just that. But I felt that I should add some of the town’s history as a prelude to writing my own memories of the town.
            As I now live in Hereford, I’ll start my recollections with the road into the town from there.

The swimming pool:

            On the left before the old skew railway bridge, is where the old outdoor swimming pool used to be and is now a housing estate. If you look behind the houses you will see the two arches beneath the railway embankment which formed a part of the Hereford to Gloucester canal which was closed long before I was born. I’ve spent many happy afternoons in that pool, open air and non-heated. God it was cold! But we had a lot of fun there and it was always busy during the long hot summers we had then. You could have a swim then spread your towel out on the wide concrete area and lie down to dry off under the hot sun. The good thing about that pool for me was that I only had to cross one main road to get to it. From where I lived I could walk across the fields to get to it and not have to worry about getting knocked down by a car or lorry.

The railway station:

            Such a shame that the station as I remembered it has gone. When I was a youngster, it was a busy place with a big goods yard and freight trains coming and going all the time. I had an uncle who used to drive a lorry for British Rail as it was then, and he delivered goods all around the area. There was a proper station building too with a ticket office. The last time I looked, you could still see what was left of the turntable on the other side of the platform. That’s where they used to turn the locomotives around. There was a “banker” loco at the station too, to push the trains up through the tunnel when they were loaded up with freight. That’s about the only thing that hasn’t changed about Ledbury Station, is the tunnel which seems to go on forever.

Site of the old boys school

The boys’ school:            ( This is where it stood.)

Moving onward toward the town you pass the old toll house at the bottom of Knapp lane to the petrol station which has always been there in one form or another and next to that was where the boys school stood. As you can see, it's all new flats now. As time went on and the education system progressed, it became the infants school when the junior school became mixed. I remember well sharing a classroom with girls as well as boys for the first time. Opposite where this school was, is the new Tesco which used to be where Spicers printing works began and before that I believe it was a garage of some sort, selling and repairing cars.

The old cottage hospital

The cottage hospital:

The cottage hospital is at the top of the town in the Homend. Progress again has closed the little hospital which has served the community so well and probably struggled to do so. I can remember my elder sister going there to have her tonsils out when she was a little girl. Now it’s closed and boarded up. I’m not sure if it’s going to be demolished or not but I expect it will be unless someone steps in to save it. But it had obviously served it’s time and now Ledbury has a brand new hospital on the site of the old cattle market in bridge street.

Isaacs stores:

Isaacs stores

Not exactly a part of old Ledbury history but I felt it worth a mention since I went to school with Duncan Isaacs and know the family well and the shop has changed a lot since its early days. It started as a small old building selling shoes and clothes but then an extension was built and now they sell linen and fabric in the shop as well as in a mobile shop going to markets all over the country. I understand, after speaking to Elizabeth Isaacs that they now have a shop in Worcester so all I can say is, well done to you all. A wonderful success story of a local family and it’s good to know that local families, ordinary folk like me have made good.

Turner court:

            Just past Isaacs stores is Turner court sheltered homes, but when I was a kid, it was just a pile of bricks compacted into the earth where a building once stood. I don’t know what the building was but I can’t remember it being anything other than what looked like a bomb site. I used to play around there with my childhood friends and had lots of adventures. We seemed to be more inventive in those days compared to what kids are today

The Curiosity shop:

My thanks to Angie Probert-Jones for reminding me of the Old Curiosity shop which was opposite Turner Court. If my memory serves me well, I believe it was actually called The Curio Shop, an abbreviation of Curiosity. I just thought I would put that bit in cos I like to show off a bit. Pretty good eh? Anyway, after Angie had jogged my memory, I remembered it well and I can still picture in my mind the lady who ran it. She was a real individual, very tall and always with her hair in a bun at the back. She wore the most outrageous ear rings, but was a charming lady all the same. I just don't remember her name, but I do remember the shop window being absolutely overflowing with all kinds of strange stuff, ornaments and things like that. The inside of the shop was the same. I can remember that even though I only went inside once or twice in the whole twenty years I was living there. Well, it wasn't really a place for modern teenagers to visit.

The Plough Inn:

            On the right was The Plough Inn. Oh The Plough, happy memories of that place. As children, my sisters and I used to go for the occasional Sunday evening walk with our parents and that was where we would stop for light refreshments, beer for dad, shandy for mum and vimto and a packet of crisps each for us kids. It was a real treat on a warm summer evening to go for a long walk with our parents. Bliss……..  Mum and dad hired the skittle alley there for both my sisters weddings and we hired it for mum and dads ruby wedding anniversary too. Great fun was had by all. That was probably the last time all our relatives got together for a knees up.

Ledbury Cinema:

Ledbury cinema (now defunct)

Moving on toward the town centre we come to the site of the old cinema, the name of which escapes me. All I know is that we went to watch films there. But the cinema disappeared a long time ago and became a supermarket, Ledburys first one I believe. But that has gone now and the premises has been many things since those days.

Harry Watkins (Barber).  Harry's shop was here now a cleaners

I owe a thank you to Mark Morgan, formerly of Ledbury and now residing in Canada. He reminded me of Harry Watkins barber shop which was next door to Woolies. I don't ever recall visiting the shop although I do now remember it. Mark tells me that Harry hated kids, boys especially and though he disliked going there for a hair cut, Harry did stock a good deal of fishing tackle. So, once more, thank you Mark. He also reminded me of Jim Powells cycle shop just a bit further up the street. I don't remember Jim but I do remember his son, Pip repairing our bikes for us. He was incredibly quick at straightening pedals and buckled wheel

Those are the most significant changes in my memory. The rest of the town has changed but not in a very substantial way. Shops have changed in what they sell and who sells them. I remember there being a fishmongers somewhere near to the Seven Stars public house. I think the name of the shop was Barnards, or maybe it was Bernards. If anyone reading this can remember, then please let me know so that I can put my website correct.

            The only real changes are the shop frontages because as the twentieth century went on and the twenty first century came along  there was a need to modernise the shop fronts, to make them more appealing. But, thankfully, as you look up, the first stories upward haven’t changed at all. Except that is for Boots, which was once a mens clothes shop called  Bradley’s and then Fosters. Somehow, when the outer layer of plaster was removed, it was found to be a half timbered building underneath which makes for a more attractive frontage and fitting in with the other black and white buildings around the town.

Just as a  point of interest, a couple of miles outside of Ledbury is a small village called "Wellington Heath" which, when I was a nipper was nicknamed "Monkey Island" and I never knew why. Until now that is, so thanks to my cousin Kathleen Coley I now know and can reveal all to anyone who doesn't know.

"It was so-called because when the viaduct was being built the workers who had been brought into the district, camped out at Wellington Heath. The bricks were made in a small quarry at the bottom of Beggars Ash (on the right had side of the road as you turn up W.H. - the site is now very overgrown and a lot of Scots pine trees grow there.)

Incidentally, this area was always known as "the Brickyard" by the locals when we were kids. It was a long time before I realised that it was Beggars Ash. Approximately 300 girls were used to carry the clay for the bricks. When the bricks were being used by the bricklayers they clambered up and down the scaffolding "like monkeys" - there you have it! Apparently they were a very loud, quarrelsome lot, always fighting. But some used the land up here to squat on and eventually obtained their pieces of land via Squatters Rights.  (Our house was a squatter’s cottage, but I do not think it had anything to do with the viaduct workers; probably the land they had would have been much nearer to Ledbury.)"