Luscious Ludlow - slow food town of the Welsh Marches
With a cholesterol test looming on my horizon, the last place on earth to take a short break should have been Ludlow.
This stronghold of the Welsh Marches has a population of only 10,000 souls yet boasted four Michelin-star restaurants until recently (there’s three at the moment), giving it the edge over anywhere outside Paris. Combine these culinary accolades with an enviable range of produce from its rich hinterland, and it comes as no surprise that Ludlow has become an undisputed mecca for worshippers of top quality food and drink which accommodates every taste and pocket. And there’s more….
Ludlow also has the distinction of being the first English town to be awarded a Cittaslow certificate. An Italian movement, Cittaslow (Slow Town) has grown into a separate organisation out of Slow Food which was kick-started by Carlo Petrini back in 1986. It’s about the honest production and cooking of great food, and preparing it in a way that enhances the true flavours instead of wrecking them. The objective is to turn our backs on fast food and speedy living and return to traditional values that embrace the older tried and tested methods.
Instead of speeding up like the rest of us, Ludlow has remained hassle-free. It is a town where you take your time, and then do it some more, for its unique culture is addictive.
Regular visitors to Ludlow already know and love its gentle ways and enjoy a standard of politeness that is utterly refreshing but fast disappearing elsewhere.
Unusually, there are five local butchers in this small town, and they aren’t playing at it.
In the square is a regular thriving general market (which has the only Coffee Bean stall I’ve
ever seen) and the monthly Ludlow Local Produce Market. Elsewhere in town are delicatessens
to die for, fresh fruit and vegetable outlets and local bakers who use the old time-consuming
methods, plus a wealth of cafes, pubs, hotels and restaurants. It is a town that’s dangerously
near perfect by any gourmet’s standards, let alone the historian’s.
Emphasising the glories of food that is produced in the region is the website Local to Ludlow . It lists small-scale operators from within a 30-mile radius of Ludlow and a mouth-watering selection of their products – including dairy produce, honey, cheese, wine, beer, cider and perry. Local to Ludlow’s commitment is to “Support the rural economy, conserve a varied working landscape, reduce food miles and packaging, and enjoy fresh, distinctive food and drink”
On a short break there’s a limit to dining out and in any case I was watching the saturated fats.
My favourite haunt for healthy lunchtime eating was a coffee house and licensed restaurant called
The Olive Branch at 2/4 Old Street. It specialises in wholefoods, with an imaginative and
daily-changing menu of delicious home-cooked dishes (especially salads) using local market
produce. It’s open seven days a week from 10 am to 3 pm (stretching to 4-ish at weekends). Not
only can you enjoy the food: you can buy the recipes in the form of three books.
On the Friday evening I visited the genteel De Greys, round the corner on the lovely and
aptly-named Broad Street, with its wealth of Tudor-style properties. Fronted by a shop that
retails bread and serious cakes the coffee house/restaurant, which belongs to another age,
is open at lunchtime too. A waitress in black frock and white pinny led me to a corner table
where I sat in a time warp enjoying fresh salmon bathed in a wickedly- good sauce, with a young
man tinkling the ivories. I half expected Kunzle cakes to be on the menu and for one of those
I’d have waived the rules.
Foreign travellers looking for the image of Englishness in a town could do worse than take Ludlow
as a prime example for it has been described as England’s finest market town, with the bonus of
over 500 listed buildings and a mediaeval castle that, for centuries, gave Ludlow the automatic
qualification of a royal town through its connection with the monarchy.
Amble round the square on market days, of which there are plenty, catching snatches of the lilting accents – influenced by the proximity of the Welsh border – to see how relaxed the locals are in each others’ company, gossiping and filling their wicker baskets with goodies. Rediscover the pleasure of being served by a stallholder or shopkeeper who clearly enjoys giving you a service rather than the impression that it’s demeaning.
With an enviable low-density population there’s room to taste the scenery of South Shropshire, where Ludlow nestles in its lushness from a perch above the River Teme, guarded by that awesome royal castle. A stronghold of the Mortimer clan, its most famous inhabitants were the young Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Six months after their marriage he was dead. A plaque in Ludlow’s venerable St Laurence Church marks the spot where his heart lies buried. Catherine, of course, went on to marry his brother Henry and the rest is history.
If the town is quite unlike anywhere else, so are the station waiting room and its trading hours.
The lone operative not only issued train tickets and manned the tourist information stand, he
made tea and biscuits as well. As I heard my train approaching I bid goodbye and, in closing
the door, observed the notice displayed thereon. Monday to Friday 6.10 to 17.15. Saturday
6.10 to 14.15.
This year’s Annual Ludlow Marches Food Festival is from the 9th to 11th September. It is considered to be the UK’s top (and largest) event of food and drink. Full details of it’s programme will be online by July or August at www.foodfestival.co.uk.