The Market House
The beautiful Herefordshire market town of Ledbury is renowned for its nationally acclaimed Poetry Festival, whilst its tourism trade – boosted by the glorious walks that can be enjoyed in the surrounding countryside – is also very important to the local economy. For these reasons, and many others, an ongoing project in the town named Ledbury Places is vitally important.
Six of Ledbury’s major heritage buildings, all highly significant and some Grade 1 Listed, are currently part of a national pilot project, funded by the Social Investment Business, looking at the future use and management of all six buildings rather than examining them individually. The scope of this work and the fact that it is looking at multiple assets in a variety of current ownerships explains why it is seen as a national exemplar by the Department for Communities and Local Government and organisations such as Locality.
The buildings include two of the most prominent historic buildings in the town – the Market House and the Barrett Browning Institute with its well-known clocktower – as well as smaller but no less important ones such as Nos 1 – 3 Church Lane, currently occupied by the Town Council.
For the last eight months, the Ledbury Places team – which includes representatives from Ledbury Town Council, Ledbury & District Civic Society, Ledbury Area Development Trust and Herefordshire Council among others, supported by both the UK Association of Preservation Trusts and the Architectural Heritage Fund – has been carrying out a Feasibility Study to look not only at preserving the buildings’ long-term future, but also finding the best possible ways for them to be put to fuller use for the whole community.
Many of the buildings are currently badly underused and the Ledbury Places project appreciates that suggesting new uses for some of these buildings is a contentious issue. Nonetheless, the project team wants local people to see Ledbury Places as a unique opportunity to ensure a viable future for some of their town’s prime assets and also safeguard them for generations to come.
In recent weeks, four options have been released into the public domain and feedback has been sought from the local community. A significant number of people have offered suggestions and comments and importantly Ledbury Town Council itself has given a statement of intent in terms of a preferred option.
A final proposal is now being put together so that grant applications can be submitted over the spring and early summer to secure funding to move the project to the next stage. There will be further opportunities for the local community to have their say on Ledbury Places but for now it is all about how funding can be secured to take the project forward.
As Ledbury & District Civic Society Chairman Alex Clive said, this may be the town’s one shot at securing the long-term future of six of the beautiful buildings that make Ledbury so special to so many people. It is therefore vital that the team – on behalf of the local community – get it right.
For more information and to be kept in touch with the project, see http://www.ledburyplaces.org.
