LUDFORD is a parish partly in this county but mostly in Shropshire. A portion of the parish is included in the parliamentary borough of Ludlow, to which the village forms a pleasant suburb, being separated from the town by the river Teme. The village of Ludford is in the county of Hereford, Wolphy hundred, Ludlow union and county court district, Brimfield polling district, and Wigmore petty sessional division. The total population in 1861 was 319; in 1871, 390; inhabited houses, 85; families or separate occupiers, 89. Of these 119 persons, 29 houses, and 31 families, belonged to Herefordshire. The area of the parish is 1,867 acres, of which 663 are in Herefordshire, the annual rateable value being £1,356. Sir Charles Henry Rouse Boughton, Bart., J. Lechmere Parkinson, Esq., and ___ Davenport, Esq., are the principal landowners. Ludford was a Roman settlement. The manor of Ludford is mentioned in Domesday Book.

The parish is in the diocese of Hereford and archdeaconry and rural deanery of Ludlow; living, a vicarage; value, £183, without residence; patron, J. Lechmere Parkinson, Esq.; vicar, Rev. Charles Kent, B.C.L., of Queen's College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1838, and is also vicar of Elton, and resides at Ludlow. The church is a small edifice, consisting of nave, chancel, aisle, and a square tower with one bell. It was restored in 1866 at a cost of about £600, defrayed by subscription, and it has been recently reseated. It contains several memorial windows of stained glass, representing the Resurrection and other scriptural scenes, which have been erected chiefly at the expense of the vicar. There are many ancient monuments to the memory of the Charlton and Lechmere families; also one to the memory of William Fox, Esq., who in the year 1500 rebuilt the hospital in this parish, for six poor persons.

Ludford Park, the seat of the ancient families of Charlton and Lechmere, is a fine old mansion, built about the 14th century. The estate was the property of the Fox family, temp. Henry VIII., and subsequently passed into the family of Lechmere, through the last heiress of the Charltons. King James I. was a visitor here, and a favourite chair of his Majesty is still preserved in the banqueting hall. Numerous family portraits adorn the mansion, some of which are very ancient. It is now the property and residence of James Lechmere Merrick Parkinson, Esq., J.P. Ledwitch, Steventon, and The Sheet, are townships of Ludford, situate in the county of Salop. Sheet House is the residence of Henry H. Bean, Esq.