COMMENT.

One of the curious problems with human beings is that we are impatient for change to happen but nostalgic, even regretful, when time does indeed move on.

This characteristic will be seen in a moment of poignant intensity, when Ledbury’s mayor, Cllr Phillip Howells, unveils a new plaque on the site of the town’s long-vanished Drill Hall in New Street.

It will be a right and proper event on Armistice Day, November 11.

The location is now the site of the Co-op, which is an asset to the town, and one which no one would wish away.

But the curious fact remains that the Drill Hall endured intact until as recently as 1988, when it was demolished.

In recent times, few buildings in Ledbury could have possessed so many haunting resonances. It was where the local lads gathered before marching away, for both the First and the Second World Wars. But now the Drill Hall is long gone, and a plaque must, at last, mark the spot.

Surely there is a lesson to be learnt from this? While Ledbury has proved itself able and willing to save and utilize its older buildings – and the Butcher Row Museum (moved and rebuilt) springs immediately to mind – the town is facing perhaps the biggest changes it has faced in generations, because of plans for rapid expansion to the north and the south. Ground will be lost, while the clamour for improved infrastructures will, no doubt, lead to necessary solutions. But the loss of the Drill Hall, not really so long ago, should give us all reason to pause: because many things, once gone, cannot be replaced.