New work starts on cobbled lane

10:00pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

TEST repairs on the cobbled and flood-damaged Church Lane will take place on Friday, September 5, following a year of pressure from the Ledbury Civic Society.

Herefordshire Council has instructed its contractors get to work on a small selected area of the lane by using traditional grouts, with a view to carrying more extensive repairs if the work is successful.

A number of cobbles in one of England’s most-photographed black-and-white Tudor streets were displaced in the July floods of 2007, when Upper Hall Lake just above the lane burst its banks.

Other cobbles were dislodged by vehicles during recent renovations of the lane’s public toilets.

Some cobble repairs were carried out in December, but the Civic Society called for the work to be done again, because contactors used light-coloured modern concrete to fix the stones in place.

Civic Society chairman Mary Winfield complained to Herefordshire Council, saying “the lane is of European importance”.

Herefordshire councillor for Ledbury, Mary Cooper, a trustee of the Civic Society, has played a key role in bringing contractors back to the lane.

She said she would be there on September 5, to study the work in progress.

Cllr Cooper added: “The lane is the very picture of an old English scene, but the floods did cause enormous damage.

“I am delighted that something is now being done.”

Cllr Cooper is personally sourcing supplies of suitable cobbles, to replace those that have gone missing over the past year or so.

Cobbled Church Lane, with its leaning half-timbered buildings and its view of Ledbury Church spire in the background, is one that has graced hundreds of calendars over the years.

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