Ludlow - The Buttercross

The town and castle date back to the founding of the Norman noble family Lacy. Walter de Lacy was given land here by William the Conqueror for his participation in the Battle of Hastings. He and his descendants founded the town and equipped it with strong fortifications. Following the Norman tradition, a wooden motte was first erected on a mound of earth. The oldest surviving stone part of the castle is the inner courtyard, which was built between 1086 and 1094 by Walter de Lacy's son Roger de Lacy.

The town was expanded by donations from the de Lacy family and was first mentioned in a document in 1138. In 1177, the town is said to have already had 1172 inhabitants (in 2005 it had 9850 inhabitants).

In 1306, the town and castle passed to the Mortimer family by inheritance. During the Wars of the Roses, Ludlow Castle was briefly the headquarters of the leaders of the House of York: the future Edward IV lost the Battle of Ludlow in 1459, which led to his flight abroad and the provisional victory of the House of Lancaster.

The Buttercross is considered to be the centre of the town. Built in 1746 in the classical style. The ground floor was originally a butter market and todays is still used on market days by various traders. The upper rooms have had a variety of uses: the chamber for the Town Council, a boys’ charity school and by now the Ludlow Museum.