On 12^th November, 1500, Geoffrey Baugh, a rich Ludlow draper, ‘beinge in holle mynde seying the perells of deth drawynge nyghe’, made his will. He left to ‘the warden of the Gylde of Our Lady and Seynet John Evangelist of Ludlow and to his Bretheryn’ a number of ‘lands and tenements in and about the town of Ludlowe, ‘of the yearly value of £3 10s 4d’, a sum the equivalent of over £500 to-day. One of these was the property at 27 Bull Ring (now Emporos), where Baugh and his family lived. The gift was made with one condition, that ‘out of the issues and yearly profits’ of the donated lands, the Guild should ‘find an honest priest and singers to sing solemnly the masse of Jesus on Fridays for evermore’.

The Friday celebration has long since lapsed, but the memory of the Guild to which Geoffrey Baugh bequeathed his properties is still cherished. He was only one of a multitude of benefactors who supported the Guild and its works. For the three hundred years after 1250 the Guild of St Mary and St John was the largest organisation in Ludlow, though it was more commonly called the Palmers’ Guild. A Palmer was a pilgrim who had been to the Holy Land, bringing back a palm branch as proof that he had reached his goal. Few of the Ludlow palmers went on a physical pilgrimage, but all wished to identify themselves with the concept of pilgrimage, a journey through life to ultimate salvation.

Membership of the guild was expensive and was largely confined to the upper and middle ranks of society. Members had many advantages, such as compensation for loss of goods or house collapse, but the chief privileges were spiritual, attained through the employment of priests, who said masses for the souls of members, in life and after death. Such intercessions, it was thought, would hasten the journeys of deceased persons through the uncertainties of purgatory, and lead eventually to the sanctuary of heaven.

Initially, membership was confined to residents of Ludlow and its immediate countryside. Most towns had religious guilds of this kind, but a few of these, like some 19^th century Building Societies, attained a membership that was much more than local. By the later 14^th century men and women were enrolled by the Palmers Guild from the West Midlands, Wales, Bristol and places further away with which Ludlow had trading links, including London. At first the Guild employed three or four priests, but in 1394 a new residential college was built in what was subsequently called College Street, with a communal hall and cells for up to ten priests. The Guild’s secular headquarters was the Guildhall in Mill Street, which was rebuilt in 1411. Through bequests and purchase the Guild accumulated many properties, eventually owning about a third of Ludlow, as well as farms and lands elsewhere. They took on new responsibilities, including the grammar school and the almshouses.

The association with St Laurence’s Parish Church was close. The priests celebrated masses regularly, working alongside the diocesan clergy. In 1447 the Guild purchased wood from which new choir stalls were carved in the newly rebuilt and extended chancel. The Guild is known to have donated glass windows, among them the widely acclaimed window in St John’s Chapel which narrates the Guild’s legendary origins in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The Guild provided music for church services, paying the organist and ‘synging men and boys’.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s and the later Chantry Acts, the Guild was dissolved in 1551, though the following year its assets and many of its responsibilities were transferred to Ludlow Borough Corporation. In the 19^th century most of the former Guild estates were divided among the institutions they supported but a small portion of them still sustain the Palmers’ Guild charity, which is used for church purposes, with the Rector and Church Wardens among the Trustees.

The Trustees of the Conservation Trust for St Laurence’s see parallels between the tasks they face to-day and those that confronted the church in the Middle Ages, so once more there will be a campaign to recruit ‘members of the Palmers Guild’. We hope that the Geoffrey Baughs of to-day will be as generous as he was.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A PALMER?
Those who are able to give to the Conservation Trust on a regular basis will be enrolled as Palmers of the Trust. The term ‘Palmer’ invokes memories of the medieval Ludlow Palmers Guild, which benefited St Laurence and the town of Ludlow in many ways.

For more information and associated forms, please follow visit the Ludlow Palmers website

“These are the treasures of the Church”. So, reputedly, said St Laurence to the prefect of Rome when he was commanded to hand over the riches of the Church to the authorities. In fact he was referring to the poor of the city whom he had assembled together. He had asked for three days to gather the Church’s wealth, during which time he worked swiftly to distribute it to the poor of the city to prevent it being seized. This act of defiance led to Laurence’s martyrdom on August 10, 258. For this reason we celebrate St Laurence’s feast day on August 10 each year. The traditional account of his death says that he was roasted on a gridiron, which has become his symbol, and can be seen in St Laurence’s Church on the end of one of the churchwarden’s staves. During his torture he is supposed to have cried out “I am already roasted on one side and, if you would have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other.”

St Laurence was one of the seven deacons of Rome who assisted the Bishop of Rome (the Pope). To this day the seven most senior cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church are known as the ‘cardinal deacons’ and are all based in Rome. Laurence is often depicted wearing a dalmatic, the distinctive robe of a deacon, and coloured red to signify his martyrdom. He was appointed as deacon by Pope Sixtus II in the year 257. He was placed in charge of the administration of Church goods and care for the poor (this probably explains the circumstances leading up to his death referred to above). For undertaking this duty, Laurence is regarded as one of the first archivists of the Church and is the patron saint of librarians.  St Laurence is an important saint in the Roman Catholic Church, being one of its early martyrs, and his name is mentioned in the Canon (or first Eucharistic Prayer) of the Roman Mass. He is particularly honoured in the city of Rome, where he is one of the city’s patrons and where a number of churches are named after him. The Church of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura is one of three Patriarchal Basilicas in the city and contains the stone on which Laurence’s body was laid after his martyrdom. By tradition he was sentenced at San Lorenzo in Miranda, and martyred at San Lorenzo in Panisperna. The gridiron supposedly used to kill him is in San Lorenzo in Lucina.

The famous comments of St Laurence about the “treasures of the Church” surely remind us all in this materialistic age that the true treasures of the Church and the world are indeed its people, all made in the image of God, and not jewels, gold and silver, which are really of no lasting value.

When an organ was first set up in Ludlow Parish Church is not known – remoter periods of history are largely unchronicled. But it is probable that an organ was here as early as 1400. There is a late 15th Century account when money was paid for “mending ye organs”. The first know organist was here from 1492 to 1508.
In the mid-16th century there were two organs in St Laurence. However, with the Commonwealth decree of 1650 to destroy all organs, records became scant.
Then, in 1764, through the generosity of the Earl of Powys, John Snetzler, a Swiss organ builder living in London, completed what still remains the heart of today’s organ. It was completed at a cost of £ 1,000 (about £110,000 in today’s money). The organs had no pedalboard, but three keyboards (or “manuals”). It had 19 stops, most of which survive to today. The organ originally stood on a platform directly under the church tower.

In the 19th Century, the renowned firm of Gray and Davison restored the organ and enlarged it, at the same time moving it to its present position in the North Transept. By this time, a fourth manual had been added.
Further changes and improvements were made during the 20th century, the more significant being as a result of some generous donations.

In 2006, thanks largely to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, further work was carried out to clean the interior of the instrument, improve the console, and to add a set of pipes to re-create one of the stops of the original Snetzler organ, removed in the 19th Century.