00:00This is the model of the Ludlow Town Hall that came in 1704. It was a hundred feet long
00:08approximately. I have no real reference for size because I've built this from photographs. It was
00:15open market, it was covered but open, but above it had a big office space, presumably for council
00:24dealings. I don't know. I have no plans of this at all. I've built this from a photograph, that's
00:33all, so the dimensions might be plus or minus, who knows. So it's the best effort I can do to
00:42provide you with what looks like Ludlow Town Hall 1704 and it was knocked down in 1886 to make way
00:52for the bigger version. Was it knocked down purely because they thought we'll have something bigger
00:56and better or do we know, like, was there an issue with the building at the time and it, you know,
01:00it was crumbling anyway sort of thing? I have a story, I don't know if it's true, but it was
01:05dilapidated in 1886 and the people, it was actually going to be knocked down presumably anyway because
01:13it was dilapidated, but what dilapidated in them terms means I don't really know. Yeah, yeah.
01:20And that building that came along and replaced this, tell us a little bit about that one that
01:25you do know about it and why it's not there anymore. The new building that replaced this in
01:321887 was by a chap called Cheers who was a well-known architect and he put a proposal
01:40along with others, it was an open competition to have a town hall, a new one, and he won.
01:48He also built Hereford and I believe he built others and many other buildings as well in the
01:55country up until 1915, I think, when he died. He was a well-known architect. Yeah. The building
02:04itself was a light years up on this because it had a covered market, it had council offices,
02:12a mayor's parlour, a stage, a dance floor that was sprung, beautiful dance floor,
02:19it had ladies and gents changing rooms, it had a beautiful curved ceiling, it was a wonderful
02:27panelled ceiling as well. It also had a feature which was a horse, a full-sized horse that was
02:34in the building and this became an icon and if people in Ludlow said I'm going to the horse,
02:44it meant they were going to the town hall. Okay. And you'll see in the model, the model of that,
02:51there is the horse up above the main entrance on the upper floor. So why is that building
02:58no longer there? What happened then? The building over the years was neglected
03:06and a lot of work was supposed to have been done through the years by the councils and it didn't
03:13and eventually it caught up with them and they said, this is to be believed or not,
03:19that it was going to catastrophically fall down at a moment's notice.
03:23So this model and the other one which is a giant, isn't it, 10 foot long, they're going to be
03:31forming part of an exhibition. Just tell us a bit about when that is, where it is and what will be
03:35included. The exhibition is going to be in the church, sorry in St Lawrence's Church, Ludlow,
03:42from the 17th of February 2025 until the 2nd of March, two weeks and that will be
03:52this model, the early one, 1704, the model that followed it, 1886 to 1986
04:02and all of my photographs, as many as I can get in the space which gives details of
04:10the history of these buildings, what I know of it.
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