Artists

A Memory of Ludlow.

Groups of artists would visit in summer and stay at The Feathers Hotel.  After breakfast they would choose their locations, some at the church, some at the castle, others would be in the middle of Broad Street.  They would set up their stools and easels and stay there all day (except for lunch of course!). There was very little traffic in 1955. One wonderful afternoon, I was invited to join them and I was able to draw the mud & wattle buildings with charcoal.  At the age of 13, it was a great honour to be included in this wonderful group of people.

Does anyone remember Miss Grayfoot?  She was head-mistress of Ludlow Girls Grammar School during the fifties.  She retired around 1956 and later I heard she had died and was buried honourably beneath the first flagstone in front of the Ludlow church's altar.  We girls all loved her.  It was she who taught our theology as well as architecture found on churches in both England and overseas.

Those were wonderful days.  I lived at The Feathers Hotel where my parents were managers for a couple of years.  My best friend in school there was Judith Hollings.  She said her sister was learning Swahili!  I had never heard of such a language.  At eighteen, I was hired by a family to be Nanny to their two children in Tanganyika, East Africa.  I learned Swahili within six months!!