Ledbury

Ledbury is a small market town in rural Herefordshire with beautiful countryside surrounding it. A lot of the beauty of Ledbury has remained unchanged over the years with buildings looking much the same as they did when I was a young lad in the 1950's and 60's.
The Feathers Hotel and Ledbury Park are two magnificent old black and white buildings and outwardly look the same as when they were first built. But the most dominant building in the town has to be the Market House which has seen various uses over the years but was originally used as the corn exchange. It is a beautiful building mounted on oak stilts with the area underneath still used on Saturdays for market stalls.
Even in the twenty years that I lived there, from birth until I got married and moved to Hereford, I saw many changes. I witnessed the closing of the Hereford to Gloucester railway which travelled through Dymock, Newent before finally entering Gloucester. There used to be a Rugby field opposite the railway station and that got built on and whatever happened to the brook (river leadon) where we used to catch minnows and stuff.
Of course this is all progress and even more has changed since I moved away. The fields behind the house I lived in at Margaret Road? Not there anymore. All houses and the industry that was there : Spicers, H.J Chapman, Ledbury Preserves. British Canners, all gone now. But this is progress and we all have to get used to changes. It's a pity the youngsters of today don't see what they have now. As kids we had the pleasure of being able to play outside, take the long trek up to Doghill, The Conigree or in my case, sometimes over the fields to Wall Hills as long as Mr Barnett the farmer didn't catch you.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this blog and please feel free to place your own comments.