Editing Ludlow (section)

===Civic===
[[File:The Buttercross, Ludlow.jpg|thumb|right|The Buttercross, built in 1743–1746, at the top of Broad Street and the highest point of the medieval town (the site of the High Cross); historically this spot was used as a benchmark for road distances to Ludlow.]]
[[File:The Guildhall building, Mill Street, Ludlow. - geograph.org.uk - 1337410.jpg|thumb|[[Ludlow Guildhall]]]]
Ludlow is a [[civil parishes in England|civil parish]] with a [[parish councils in England|town council]] and a mayor. Ludlow was a [[Ancient borough|borough]] from 1461 to 1974 (becoming a [[municipal borough]] in 1835 and a [[rural borough]] in 1967); the borough encompassed the same area as Ludlow's [[parish]] until the mid-late 19th century. Its borough status meant Ludlow was largely autonomous from the hundred of [[Munslow (hundred)|Munslow]] which it lay in.

Wider local government was provided by [[Ludlow Rural District]] from 1894 (this rural district absorbed the borough of Ludlow in 1967, causing the change in status to a rural borough) until 1974 when [[South Shropshire]] District Council (with Ludlow as its seat) took over along with [[Shropshire County Council]] in a two-tier arrangement. Rural boroughs were abolished in 1974 and Ludlow's [[Borough status in the United Kingdom|borough status]] at that point ended. The district councils of Shropshire were abolished in 2009 and the county now has a [[unitary authority]] called [[Shropshire Council]], based in Shrewsbury. The South Shropshire District Council's offices at Stone House on Corve Street were gradually emptied of local government staff until their sale in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/02/council-offices-put-up-for-sale-in-ludlow/|title=Council offices put up for sale in Ludlow|date=2 June 2014|newspaper=Shropshire Star|access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref>

The town council is based at [[Ludlow Guildhall]] on Mill Street, a grade I listed building,<ref>[http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-390045-the-guildhall-and-adjoining-coachhouse-l British Listed Buildings] The Guildhall and adjoining Coachhouse</ref> which was the home of the town's [[County court|county]] and magistrates' courts until their closure in 2011.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-15113637 BBC News] Ludlow, Shrewsbury and Oswestry county courts close (30 September 2011)</ref> There was a Town Hall, situated in the Square, which was built in 1887–1888 and demolished in March 1986;<ref>Farlow, R and Trumper, D (2005) ''Ludlow and South-West Shropshire'' page 11</ref> it featured prominently just prior to its demolition in the 1985 television drama ''[[Blott on the Landscape]]''. The other notable civic building in the centre of town is the [[Ludlow Buttercross|Buttercross]] (named as it was the butter market at the site of the medieval High Cross); it was the home of the town council after the demolition of the Town Hall and prior to the closure of the courts. It is now an 'interpretation centre' for the town's architectural heritage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ludlow.gov.uk/Uploads/Site817/Files/bx/thebuttercrossupdate.pdf |title=The Buttercross update|publisher=Ludlow Town Council|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220024113/https://www.ludlow.gov.uk/Uploads/Site817/Files/bx/thebuttercrossupdate.pdf|archive-date=20 December 2014}}</ref>