The Preacher’s House in Ludlow is a double fronted Grade II listed house, which must be one of the most important properties in the famous medieval town.
It has been beautifully and painstakingly restored by the local antiques specialist John Clegg and his wife Joma.
The amount and detail of the work that has been done to this beautiful property is impressive to say the least. As well as restoring its layout to an earlier date, revealing and carefully preserving many timbers and replacing/restoring floors, ceilings and part of the roof, they also revealed and restored fireplaces and underpinned a major wall.
They also incorporated a new kitchen and bathroom fittings which blend easily with the ancient timber framed building.
After working solidly on its restoration for two years before finally moving in to live at The Preacher’s House, the Cleggs are now selling it as they wish to work on another one of their properties.
The Preacher’s House is therefore up for sale with Lane Fox of Ludlow for £525,000.
This outstanding home has a sitting room, dining room, drawing room/bedroom four, cloakroom and store, three bedrooms, a bathroom, en suite shower room, converted attic and cellar.
It also has a pretty hard landscaped rear garden, with feature pond, and pretty patio, apple, plum and mistletoe plus off street parking, which is a rarity in the town.
Above the front door is a sign that gives the date of when the timber framed home was built as 1611. It also declares it as “the old house of the town preacher and lecturer”.
Records show that a charter dated 1552 made provision for the appointment of a public preacher in Ludlow. It transferred properties from the Palmer’s Guild (then being dissolved) to the corporation to pay his stipend.
Number 14 Old Street was corporation property and was reserved for the preacher just prior to 1611. This was the year that Thomas Kay was appointed the public preacher.
However he did not live there, but repeatedly urged the corporation to rebuild it. By the time rebuilding began in 1622, Kay had left the town.
When the Cleggs bought the property it had belonged to an old lady who had lived there since the 1950s. Where the back cloakroom and utility now lies was once the tiny kitchen.
A hairdressing business was based in what is now the sitting room and a former sitting room is now the new kitchen. One of the bedrooms had a floor that slopedso much that it was rumoured the bed would slide from one end of the room to another.
The Cleggs came up with the idea of dealing with the sloping floor by adding a new stepped floor. They added a mezzanine landing (a cosy sitting space) and created a doorway through to the attic.
In many of the bedrooms they removed plaster to reveal the timber beams and wattle and daub, which was also painstakingly restored.
One of the fireplaces was a bread oven and underneath the Cleggs found old nutshells. Nutshells were also found in the wall cavities and the Cleggs discovered that they were used for insulation.
Some of the beams discovered are in fact older than the house. Hundreds of nails had to be pulled out of them and the oak floorboards were restored and corked.
John Clegg commissioned a new staircase with a reproduced wooden handrail. He also designed another flight of stairs the attic rooms - one section of which is used as an attic bedroom.
John Clegg said he had never done work to a house to this extent before. He used to have the shop next door for his antiques business. He did work on that before selling it and buying The Preacher’s House.
Local craftsmen
“The Preacher’s house was undisturbed and needed wakening. It is like a jewel, like you have given the town back a jewel by putting it back the way it was.
“There was damp and all that had to be eradicated. We gutted the property from necessity. It was also rewired and replumbed. We also restored the frontage using lime plaster. The Cleggs used talented local craftsmen to bring life back into The Preacher’s House. They included stonemason Mick Stewardson of Ludlow and blacksmith Darren Broome from Clee Hill and the wood and bespoke doors were made by Castle Hill Joinery.
“The ceiling mouldings and plasterwork were done by Stuart Preece of Ludlow, the reproduction attic windows were by John Young and the general carpentry was done by Rob Allen of Dorstone, Herefordshire.
As the property is Grade II listed all the work had to be done under the supervision of South Shropshire District Council’s conservation officer Colin Richards.
John Clegg said: “We wanted to create a home. We didn’t want to live in a museum. What we’ve tried to do is to retain the houses’ character but create a convenient, modern living space. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.”
Further details are available from Lane Fox on 01584 873711.
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