Historic Ludlow walls are damaged again
More damage has been caused to historic walls near a town's medieval bridge.
It comes just weeks after a lorry left a hole in the wall of Ludford Bridge, leading to the closure of a major route into Ludlow. A second accident involving a lorry, which happened yesterday, has left a section of wall damaged just a hundred metres away.
This time the lime-mortar wall above the horseshoe weir, next to Ludford Bridge, has not been destroyed, but has been scraped, pushed out of shape and left in a fragile state. Calls were today made by some residents to ban lorries from using the route altogether.
Meanwhile, it has now been estimated work on Ludford Bridge will take six weeks to complete.
The new accident happened yesterday morning just before 9am, and was witnessed by Ludlow town councillor Timothy Gill, who lives close by.
He said: "It was a lorry with a long, empty trailer. The driver was trying to turn into Homecare, but you need a wide angle, and as he started to turn he found he couldn't.
"He started reversing and gouged a chunk of the wall. There wasn't a lot of traffic, it was just poor driving."
Andy Boddington, Shropshire councillor for Ludlow North said it was yet more damage to Ludlow's historic fabric.
He said: "We can't just point it up, the stonework has been pushed back, the wall has bowed and it's a little bit wobbly.
"Hopefully we'll be able to do repair work on this at the same time as the bridge," he said.
