Trust re-formed to fund repairs to Ludlow's town walls

In Ludlow last month I saw the failure, 12 years after a stretch collapsed, to repair its town walls as a metaphor for national malaise. (The photo above shows a section in a better state of repair.)

Now BBC News reports that the charitable trust that used to care for Ludlow's town walls is re-forming and will begin raising money to assist local authorities in carrying out the repairs:

"This blot on our landscape has been left unattended and it's now presenting a risk of further collapse," claimed Colin Richards, chair of the trust.

"What we're trying to do as a community is to come forward through the Ludlow Town Walls Trust to say look...we can help as a community."

Mr Richards was responsible for the wall for 24 years as a conservation officer with the former South Shropshire District Council.

The report also touches on the dispute over who is responsible for the upkeep of the walls:

The section of wall is owned by the Parish Church of St Laurence, Ludlow, as part of the Church of England estate.

However, responsibility for repair lies with Ludlow Town Council, according to the parish and Shropshire Council.

Ludlow Town Council has not responded to the BBC's request for comment, but earlier this year said it was still taking legal advice.

Bluesky: At last we have a serious alternative to Twitter

I caught the bus to Ludlow with every intention of taking lots of photos of the architecture, but didn't get the good weather I had imagined. Still, I did like this little industrial building near the station.

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— Jonathan Calder (@lordbonkers.bsky.social) Aug 19, 2024 at 22:20

Elon Musk's determination to ruin Twitter has led a lot of people to explore an alternative, Bluesky.

I've had an account there myself for a while - you can find it here - and have been making more use of it since I got back from holiday.

Not only is the atmosphere more pleasant on Bluesky, it is also proving a good way of increasing the readership of this blog.

Twitter used to be great for that, but over the past year or two the number of Liberal England readers has dropped noticeably. I suspect that's because the changes Musk has made to the Twitter algorithm mean that fewer people are seeing my tweets.

But one retweet from a journalist on Bluesky has made my post on the Tories and foreign money the most read one on here for months.

So it looks as thought we finally have a viable alternative to Twitter in the shape of Bluesky.

I shall stick around on Twitter, at least for a while, but a fair number of civilised people have already closed their accounts. (You can also find me on Instagram, incidentally.)

Ludlow wall's down and England's done

Twelve years ago, a section of Ludlow's medieval town wall collapsed. When I visited the town a couple of weeks ago I found that repairs have still not begun.

Andy Boddington reported at the start of this year that there has been a dispute over who is responsible for the repairs, You suspect that has been fought with such tenacity because no public authority has the money to fund the work if they cop for it.

Someone I knew in planning used to tell me that Ludlow was safe from insensitive development because it's one of the towns foreign dignitaries are taken to show them the best of England.

Now it seems we can't afford the upkeep of the place.

Ryanair bar UK couple from flying over passport tea stain

Our Headline of the Day Award sees a rare victory for the Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser, which has pictures of the stain.

The judges advise everyone to be careful when drinking tea as they don't mess about at East Midlands Airport.

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Andy Boddington, a Lib Dem councillor in Ludlow, explains why he won't be signing a petition on Gaza organised by a Shropshire resident: "How can you be a peace campaigner when you accuse people who won’t sign as having extreme views without knowing their views or reasons for not signing. Mr Robbins should withdraw his reckless attempt to name and shame councillors and to put them in danger. He should work towards peace in the Middle East not towards creating conflict in Shropshire."

"When I explained my situation to my manager, they said I had just two weeks off on full pay. After that, I’d get what is known as statutory sick pay from my employer, paid at just £109.40 a week. I could hardly believe it." After experiencing the financial blow that being diagnosed with cancer also brings, Danny Berry has joined the Safe Sick Pay campaign.

"The point is - there were no pro-slavery societies. People who wanted to carry on benefiting from slavery for as long as possible counseled delay and inaction - that was the only realistic course. It would not have been tenable for Dundas or any other public figure to argue in favour of slavery. In that sense, there are analogies with climate change." Jackie Kemp looks at the different ways the story of slavery is represented by Edinburgh's monuments."

Historic England considers Cornwall's under-researched queer literary history.

"Eight new villages were planned for the Forest, Kielder itself would be the largest - 'new village communities of estate workers, adequately and compactly housed, and enjoying a high standard of local amenities'." Municipal Dreams on a postwar experiment in rural housing.

Stephen Wagg likes Kenneth More far more as an actor than I do, but I still enjoyed his discussion of the sudden decline of More's career: "More ... received an offer from David Lean to play the lead in an adaptation of Richard Mason’s interracial romance novel, The Wind Cannot Read. He says he turned it down, unsure if the public would accept him in a 'Rupert Brooke-style' part; More later called this decision his biggest professional mistake."

Matthew Green to fight South Shropshire for the Lib Dems?

There's news of a possible replacement candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the South Shropshire constituency.

Matthew Green, who was Lib Dem for the largely identical Ludlow seat between 2001 and 2005, has tweeted saying he is being asked to stand and asking what people think. The response so far seems enthusiastic.

The unexpected vacancy has been caused by Chris Naylor's decision to stand down from the role for health reasons.

Anyway, it's an excuse for me to post another of my many pictures of the constituency.

Chris Naylor stands down as Lib Dem PPC for South Shropshire

There's disappointing news from Shropshire: Chris Naylor, the Lib Dem due to fight the South Shropshire constituency at the next election has stood down for health reasons.

The news comes in a blog post by Andy Boddington, and we wish Chris all the best for a full recovery.

Chris says:

"It’s a huge disappointment to have to step down as PPC due to health concerns, after nearly a year now as the South Shropshire Lib Dem Candidate. Sadly, my old cardiovascular problem has flared up again after nearly 10 years. However, having launched a new local Lib Dem branch in the Strettons, and delivered many thousands of leaflets, I’ll still be playing an active part – giving my all to win back South Shropshire.

"Meanwhile I’m delighted that since my news several strong new candidates have come forward and I understand the constituency party will be announcing our new PPC very soon. I’d like to take this opportunity to offer many thanks to colleagues for their kind support."

Bridgnorth borrows half a million so town cliff railway can reopen

The people of Bridgnorth have given their town council the go ahead to borrow half a million pound to fund repairs that will allow the town's cliff railway to reopen.

As a result of this funding for work on an unstable retaining wall, the railway is due to reopen later this month.

The vote in favour of the borrowing is a reflection of the fact that the cliff railway isn't just a tourist attraction. Because of Bridgnorth's unique geography - half the town lies on the banks on the Severn and half on an outcrop that overlooks it - it's a valuable amenity for residents too.

According to the town clerk Clare Turner, quoted by BBC News, the £500,000 will be repaid over 25 years and will cost residents an extra £8 each year.

Meanwhile, reports Andy Boddington, there is no sign that work to restore a stretch of Ludlow's medieval town wall that collapsed 11 years ago will begin any time soon.

Concert pianist elected chair of South Shropshire Lib Dems

The Shropshire Star has put up a paywall, so we go instead to the Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser:

A concert pianist who has been elected to chair the Liberal Democrats for the new South Shropshire constituency.

David Gaukroger, who has been chair of the Ludlow Town Lib Dems since 2011 and a former Cleobury Mortimer councillor, replaces Councillor Heather Kidd MBE. 

Mr Gaukroger is well known in South Shropshire for his recent Flanders and Swann concerts with tenor Kim Begley in Ludlow’s Assembly Rooms, and has just performed in ‘A Christmas Carol’, in aid of MND research. 

“After Helen Morgan MP’s by-election triumph in North Shropshire - and our two stunning recent council by-election wins here in Worfield, and in Alveley and Claverley - it’s clear voters across Shropshire are turning to the Lib Dems," he said.

"For too long the Conservatives have taken voters here for granted.”

“South Shropshire had a Lib Dem MP, Matthew Green just a few years ago. I’m sure that with our parliamentary candidate Chris Naylor - who lives in All Stretton, in the heart of the constituency - we’ll be winning South Shropshire back again soon.”

If that sounds overconfident, remember that the president of South Shropshire Conservatives recently said much the same thing:

The outcome of the Worfield by-election carries significant implications for the Conservative Party. It was one of the safest divisions in South Shropshire (formerly Ludlow). Losing there, with such a strong swing against and no impediments to the campaign goes further than the lessons from North Shropshire that there are no safe seats for the Conservatives in rural Britain.

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"Like a partner in an abusive relationship, the BBC is desperate to be loved by those who despise it and everything it stands for. So, even as this tired and disgraced Government, reeling from a series of catastrophic by-election defeats, is limping timidly towards its reckoning with an increasingly hostile electorate, the BBC’s Director-General felt it necessary to abase himself before its baying backbenchers." Patrick Howse on Tim Davie's self-basement before the 1922 Committee.

Johnny Rich says the government is wrecking its own reforms of technical education.

"Young Deer’s version of the Osage tragedies opened just four months after the January 1926 arrests of William King Hale, Ernest Burkhart and John Ramsey - played by Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tay Mitchell, respectively, in Scorsese’s film - for the horrifying murders of several dozen or more Osage Indians over their oil headrights." Angela Aleiss rediscovers the Native American filmmaker James Young Deer, who first told the story of Killers of the Flower Moon.

Iain Sharpe, who was one of the most interesting Lib Dem voices in the golden age of blogging, has revived his blog Eaten by Missionaries after 11 years. Here he explains why he was away so long.

"One of the things that has always struck me about the Narnia novel is how wildly and recklessly they borrow from other narratives.  Lewis blends together Classical myth with English folklore, adds bits of The Secret Garden and the Gospels, gestures to Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Malory, and sends the reader off to wander through this dazzling landscape." Jem Bloomfield introduces his new book, which untangles the literary roots of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Katy Alston is interviewed about her new map of medieval Ludlow: "I tried to ensure that everything on the map had been researched. For example, I wanted to add boats on the river but didn’t because Ludlow didn’t have a decent boat trade route. It was blocked intermittently and very unreliable. Artists have added trows ( boats) in the past, but this was apparently just artistic licence."

Lib Dem PPC for South Shropshire calls for action on flash floods

From the Shropshire Star:

Chris Naylor, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the new South Shropshire constituency at the general election, says the county needs to be better prepared for deluges like that that hit the area as part of Storm Babet. 

He said immediate steps that need to be taken are drain clearance and looking for ways to control the flow of water.

After meeting residents in Church Stretton affected by flooding from the A49, he told the paper:

"Yet again it has rained hard. Yet again there were flash floods that could have been avoided if the county had been better prepared. Floods at Minsterley, Ludlow, Church Stretton, Cleobury Mortimer and in many other towns and villages in the south of the county.

"I am saddened and shocked to hear that one man died in floodwater at Cleobury Mortimer."

And added:

He added: “The stark reality is that south Shropshire needs to be better prepared for these deluges. The science is straightforward. As the climate warms, the air will hold more water. Deluges, rather than the steady rain we are used to, will become more common.

South Shropshire is the successor to the Ludlow constituency that Matthew Green held for the Liberal Democrats between 2001 and 2005.

Since then it has returned a Conservative with large majorities, but in recent weeks two of the safest Tory council wards in the constituency have been gained by the Lib Dems with huge swings. Something is stirring among those blue remembered hills.

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"This mess was, of course, both predictable and predicted. That’s why I’ve been struck, visiting the UK this summer, by the curious political taboo against discussing how badly Brexit has gone, even among many who voted against it." Michelle Goldberg has found that no one in the UK wants to talk about the disaster of Brexit.

Neil Schofield-Hughes warns Wales to be beware of Keir Starmer's attack on devolution in London over ULEZ.

Mark Lilla says we need a post-identity liberalism: "By the time ... [students] reach college many assume that diversity discourse exhausts political discourse, and have shockingly little to say about such perennial questions as class, war, the economy and the common good."

I have long been more interested in Karl Popper theory of knowledge than his philosophy of science.  Steven K. Graham looks at its implications for the education of younger children.

Andy Boddington is pleased that Ludlow is not too posh for Rag’n’Bone man: "A few complaints from people that live a mile from the castle. The topography of Ludlow means that sound travels to unexpected places. Expected places too. There were good crowds on Whitcliffe Common which could perhaps remarket itself as the Ludlow Amphitheatre."

This weekend's weather in Manchester has been no laughing matter, though John Arlott used to claim it's the only city where they have lifeboat drill on the buses. The Mill looks into the fairness of its reputation for rain.

South Shropshire Lib Dems choose Chris Naylor as their PPC

Chris Naylor will fight the South Shropshire constituency for the Liberal Democrats at the next general election.

He told the Shropshire Star:

"I'm delighted and honoured to be selected as South Shropshire's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Lib Dems here. I promise to do all I can for local residents.

"I want to build on the success of our previous Lib Dem MP here, Matthew Green - and win back this seat to give our residents, our rural issues, a stronger voice in Westminster.

"South Shropshire and our particular problems are sadly being taken for granted by this exhausted, infighting government. I want to champion our local needs - and especially our rural communities, our farms, our rivers - in Westminster and press for change.

"I also want faster ambulance response times and to save our community hospitals. I want more affordable housing, better public transport, and good-value shops in towns and in rural villages. And real encouragement for new businesses - including a better deal with Europe."

Chris Naylor, who lives in Church Stretton, was a Lib Dem councillor in Camden for eight years and was the cabinet member for housing for four of them.

South Shropshire has much the same boundaries as Ludlow, which Matthew Green held for the Lib Dems between 2001 and 2005.

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Ben Ansell dissects the nonsense that is the supposed new elite: "Absolutely core to the intellectual and political manifestations of ‘populism’ is the idea that the 'people' are not being listened to. That someone else is calling the shots. An unrepresentative elite. Whether that elite is in the political system itself, or as with the 'new woke elite', largely outside of the political system but somehow responsible for policies and politics, varies across populist arguments. But in common there is an elision of differences among the people and an exaggeration of differences between the people and whichever precise elite is being castigated."

The wait for an ambulance in Shropshire is shocking and people are dying as a result, says Ludlow's Andy Boddington.

"The ultimate blame for the mess lies in an incoherent government policy rooted in ignorance, misunderstanding and stupidity. Classical music in Britain is genuinely 'world-beating, yet it is being vandalised by know-nothings with a confection of crackpot ideologies." Jessica Duchen on the BBC's classical music cuts.

Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore asks why children aren’t protected from parents who monetise their lives online: "Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have heralded an era of gauche personal branding where success is measured in followers and ‘Likes’, exposure trumps privacy, and fame translates into cash. In an influencer’s life, everything is for sale - including the kids."

John Stern says 1963 gave us gave us sex, the Beatles... and one-day cricket.

"In late 1969 photographer Mick Rock visited Syd Barrett at his flat in Wetherby Mansions, Earls Court to take pictures for the cover of Syd’s first solo album The Madcap Laughs.  Those images are among the most powerful rock photos of the era and many ended up in the hugely collectible (and now very expensive) book Psychedelic Renegades." Stuart Penney delves deep into the world of Syd Barrett,

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"I believe that the leadership is making a serious mistake. Our policy on rebuilding trade and cooperation in Europe can be popular – if only we let people know about it. There is no credible answer to the challenges Britain faces without it. And, even better, it distinguishes us very clearly from Labour, which is running scared of Brexit." Duncan Brack asks why Ed Davey never talks about Europe.

Andy Boddington reports that Shropshire is to receive no 'levelling up' money to revitalise its bus services: "The operating costs of bus companies have increased significantly over the last year following the increase in fuel prices. Passenger numbers have also not recovered since the pandemic. We are in danger of losing many of our services. Two routes under threat are the 435 service between Ludlow and Shrewsbury and the 553 Bishop’s Castle Shrewsbury service."

Merve Emre fears that academia has ruined literary criticism.

Emily Brontë acted with pragmatism, courage and kindness in her last illness and the received wisdom that she was a 'stubborn', self-destructive patient is grossly unfair, says a new account discussed by Mark Bridge.

"Let me now be your guide to the five most horror-inflected Crown Court cases.  Witchcraft, demonic possession, folk horror and, er, imaginary killer robots, they’re all here (and I’ll finish up with a rundown of the series’ other mildly spooky-flavoured stories)." Ivan Kirby discovers the dark side of the afternoon programme Seventies children watched if they were off school ill.

Sarah Weinman on Sandy Fawkes, the journalist and Soho character who met a stranger at a hotel bar and agreed to a road trip across America. Her companion later turned out to be a serial killer.

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"I was also lucky in being rescued by people I barely knew, friends and my family. I can never repay that debt but I can help others." Andy Boddington, a Liberal Democrat councillor from Shropshire, talks about his own experience of homelessness and about combating it in Ludlow.

Harry Pearse considers the arguments against giving children the vote and finds them wanting: "The fact that adults don’t need to show franchise credentials or an independence of mind shows that voting is not a privilege of competency, but rather a right of citizenship."

"He disliked cars, perceiving correctly that the post-War conviction that motor vehicles must dictate the future shape of cities had been responsible for wrecking many venerable town centres. One of his most successful books was Britain’s Lost Cities (2007), which pointed out in heartfelt terms the damage that planners of the sixties, seventies and still more recently, have done to Birmingham and Bristol, to Glasgow, Liverpool and many other places." Gillian Tindall remembers Gavin Stamp.

Joy Wiltenburg finds that the idea that women can't do humour is a 20th-century heresy.

"The community of the early modern English village was transposed to the vast and untamed New World, populated largely by the most enthusiastic religious adherents. To the claustrophobia of the village was added the terrifying emptiness of the wilderness that lurked beyond the homesteads—as well as aching fears engendered by subsistence farming thousands of miles from home, where the failure of the land or of the farmer’s skill meant death." Francis Young reviews of a book on the fear of witchcraft in 17th-century America.

There are pubs that claim to be the oldest in Britain, but most of these claims do not stand up to scrutiny. James Wright investigates the necessary criteria, from the age of the building to its history as a pub to its current use, to determine whether it is possible to declare a winner.

Ludlow's town wall still awaits repair 10 years after it collapsed

It will soon be 10 years since a surviving length of Ludlow's medieval town walls collapsed, but there is still no sign that it will be repaired.

Andy Boddington writes on his blog:

I visited the site on Friday. I am shocked by the state of the collapsed area. There are sycamores and a buddleia growing out of the rubble of the collapsed wall. All vegetation needs removing as a matter of urgency to prevent further damage to the wall. 

Tomorrow Ludlow's town council will discuss the walls, but will do so without the press or public present.

As Andy says:

This long saga needs to end but frankly I am not confident of it being resolved and the wall rebuilt within five years. The cost to the town council will be astronomical, perhaps up to third of its annual budget.

When the walls collapsed in 2013, there were a wide range of heritage grants available. With the tightening of public finances, and set to get tighter according to the latest Chancellor this weekend, it will get much more difficult to get a grant.

Motorists given emu warning after sightings near Ludlow

The Shropshire Star, inevitably, wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Well done everybody.

Fundraiser planning nude ride through Ludlow could be arrested if advice not taken, police say

Not for the first time, the Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award.

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The Liberal Democrats are making the same mistake that doomed the Liberals a century ago, argues Nick Barlow.

Ian Dunt says liberals can redefine national pride and reclaim the flag from nationalists: "Liberal patriotism ... It starts and ends with the individual. It is a personal love story which springs from within, not a slab of uniformity imposed from above. It therefore cares about every individual in the country."

Dominic Dyer on the politics of the badger cull.

"Next Thursday 18 February 2021, it will have been eight years since the town walls fell at the back of St Laurence’s. There is no sign of the repairs beginning this year." Andy Boddington suggests Ludlow’s collapsed town wall should be registered as a Monumental Failure and become a tourist attraction.

Chris Orton offers an appreciation of Moondial, the BBC children's drama series from 1988: "Children’s drama in this era was thought-provoking and intelligent, with real care and attention made during the productions. The BBC seemed to go to great lengths to produce high quality programmes that made children think, entertained them and which didn’t belittle them."

"She loved to perch herself on or near a windowsill, surveying the outdoors for hours. It strikes me now how quintessentially feline that behaviour is: a docile carnivore balanced on the border of a human home, alone and content, yet with all its senses tuned to the world beyond." Ferris Jabr asks if cats are really domesticated.