Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/732

This page needs to be proofread.
724

LUDGERSHALL. 724 LUDLOW. desden House, erected by General Webb, and afterwards inhabited by the Duke of Chandoa, is the principal resi- dence. W. H. Mann, Esq., is lord of the manor. A pleasure fair is held on 25th July. LUDGERSHALL, a par. in the hund. of Ashendon, co. Bucks, 6 miles S.E. of Bicester, and 10 N.W. of Aylesbury. Thame is its post town. The par. in- cludes the hmlts. of Kingswood and Tetchwict. In former times there existed a small religious community here, connected with the great hospital of Saintingfield, in Picardy. At the suppression of alien priories, the property came to King's College, Cambridge. The living is a rect.* in the dioc. of Oxford, val. 259. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is a stone edifice of ancient date. It has a font of Norman design, and con- tains a brass of 1565. The charities produce about 18 per annum. The Independents have a chapel. There is a National school for both sexes. The Rev. Thomas Martyn is lord of the manor. LUDGVAN, or LTJDJAN, a par. in the hund. of Penwith, co. Cornwall, 3 miles N.E. of Penzance, its post town. The Marazion station on the West Cornwall line of railway is about I mile E. from the village. It lies N. of Mount's Bay, on rising ground, near the coast of the English Channel. In Domesday survey this place is called Ludaham, when it was one of the possessions of Robert Earl of Mortaigue. Copper and tin are obtained here, also granite and schistose. A peculiar kind of granite, with which was blended a large proportion of mica, called the Ludgvan stone, used to be found here, but appears to be now exhausted. The people are mostly employed in mining operations. The hmlt. of Crowlas, and several small places, are included in this parish, which is of large extent. The tithes have been com- muted for a rent-charge of 808. The living is a rect. in the dioc. of Exeter, val. 800. The church is a stone edifice, with tower and Norman porch, dedicated to St. Paul. It contains a monument to Dr. Borlase, the learned antiquary and historian of Cornwall, who was rector of this parish for above 50 years, and the tomb of Sir Humphry Davy's parents. The parochial charities produce about 7 per annum. The Wesleyans have six chapels, the Primitive Methodists two, and the Bible Christians one. There is a National school for both sexes. In the neighbourhood are remains of an en- trenched camp, called Castleandinas, the diameter of which is 400 i'eet from E. to W., and the principal ditch CO feet wide ; it occupies the summit of the highest hill in this part of the county, and commands views of the English Channel. At Collurian are remains of an ancient chapel, and on the road to Marazion earthworks, thrown up by the Parliamentarians while engaged in the siege of St. Michael's Mount. The Rev. Canon Eogers is lord of the manor. A cattle fair is held at Lower Quarter on the 2nd October. LUDHAM, a par. in the hund. of Happing, co. Nor- folk, 11 miles N.E. of Norwich, its post town, and 13 N.W. of Yarmouth. It is situated near the bank of the river Bure. The village, which is large and well built, was formerly a market town, and the bishops of Norwich had a seat here. The episcopal residence was originally a grange, which formed part of the demesne of St. Bennet's Abbey at Holme, and is now converted into a farmhouse. The market was chartered in the reign of Elizabeth, but has long been discontinued. The appropriate tithes have been commuted for a rent- charge of 040, and the vicarial for one of 300. The living is a vie. in the dioc. of Norwich, val. 298, in the patron, of the bishop. The church is an ancient edifice, with embattled tower, and is dedicated to St. Catherine. It has a screen of the 15th century, and a font, both handsomely carved. The parochial charities produce about 100 per annum, above 80 of which are derived from rents of land for the benefit of the poor. The register commences in 1583. The Baptists and Wes- leyans have each a chapel, and there is a National school for boys and girls. Ludham Hall is a farmhouse, for- merly part of the bishop's palace. A fair is held on the Thursday and Friday after Trinity Sunday. LTJDLOW, a par., market town, municipal and par- liamentary borough, locally in the hund. of Munslow, co. Salop, 10 miles from Leominstcr, 25 S.E. of Shrews- bury, and 143 N.W. by N. of London. It has a station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway. It is situated on a commanding eminence on the southern border of the county, close to Herefordshire, and in the fertile vale of the Teme, which is here joined by the river Corve. It is a place of great antiquity, having taken its rise in a Roman settlement, and was called by the Welsh Mnan Llys Tywysog, signifying " the prince's palace," and afterwards, by the Saxons, Zeadlowe. It is par- ticularly celebrated for its castle, built by Roger de Montgomery, and once a royal residence, but now an imposing ruin, considered the most extensive in England, and extra-parochial. This castle, which was of great strength in ancient times, was seized by Henry 1 . , besieged by Stephen in 1138, and retained by the 1'itz- warines, to whom it was granted by Henry II. It was subsequently given by John to Philip d'Aubigny, from whom it reverted through the De Lacy and Mortimer families to the crown. It was stormed by Henry IV. in 1459, having been garrisoned by the Yorkists, and was fitted up for the reception of the court in the reigns of Edward V. and Henry VII., which latter monarch held the festivities here on occasion of the marriage of Prince Arthur with Katherine of Arragon. In the reign of Henry VIII. it was made the seat of the Lords President of the Marshes of Wales, and it was here that " Comus," written by Milton for the entertainment of the family of the Earl of'Bridgwater, was performed. In the Civil War it was garrisoned for Charles I. ; but the Royalists having been routed in the vicinity, it was surrendered in 1645 to the Parliamentary forces. At the Restoration it was held by Earl C'arbery, the patron of Jeremy Taylor, and Samuel Butler, author of " Hudibras," who, whilst re- siding here, wrote the first three cantos of that poem. At the Revolution, the office of Lord President of Wales having been abolished, it was dismantled. The town, which was walled by Edward I., is well built, and has recently been much improved. Broadgate is the only one of the seven gates now remaining. It was first chartered by Edward IV. It contains a townhall and market-house, guildhall, where quarter and petty sessions are held, a prison erected on the site of Goalford's tower, a police station, two branch banks, savings-bank, public library with news-rooms, assembly rooms situated in Castle-street, a literary institution and mechanics' insti- tute, dispensary, lying-in institution, union poorhouse situated in the parish of Stanton Lacy, and a museum of natural history, containing a choice and valuable collec- tion of fossils from the Ludlow rocks, besides antiquities and curiosities. The limits of the municipal borough are less extensive than those of the parliamentary, in- cluding only the "old borough" or parish of Ludlow St. Lawrence, with a population in 1851 of 4,691, which, in 1861 had increased to 5,178 ; while the parliamentary includes also the parish of Ludlow, and parts of Stanton Lacy and Bromfield, with a population in 1851 of 5,376, and in 1861 of 6,033. It has returned two members to parliament since the reign of Edward IV. , and is governed under the new act by a mayor, who is returning officer, 4 aldermen, and 12 common councilmen, with the style of " bailiffs, burgesses, and commonalty of the town and borough of Ludlow." The area of the new borough comprises 1,395 acres, and its revenue amounts to about 1,900, more than half of which is derived from the town lauds. A considerable business is done in the malt trade ; the glove manufacture, which was formerly carried on here, is now extinct ; there are, besides, two or three water corn-mills. The quarter sessions are held before the Recorder of Ludlow. There is also a county court for the recovery of debts under 50, and a Board of Poor-law Guardians for a union embracing 31 parishes, of which 6 are in. Herefordshire, and the remainder in Salop. It is the seat of a superintendent registry, and gives name to a deanery in the archdcac. of Salop and dioc. of Hereford. The tithes have been com- muted for a rent-charge of 23 13s. Gil. The living is a