Christmas Lights, Ludlow, Shropshire

© Joe Daniel Price/Getty Image

Ludlow aglow. Ludlow, Shropshire

Welcome to the heart of historic Ludlow, a medieval market town with a modern-day reputation for serving up delicious food and drink. The town centre will be bustling with shoppers over the Christmas period, buying last-minute presents under the glow of festive lights strung from its historic buildings.

Among them, in the centre of our homepage photo, is one of Britain’s oldest department stores, Bodenhams – a family-run business that set up shop in this iconic timber-framed building in 1860. The building itself goes much further back, to 1405, and is one of many historic buildings in Ludlow. Ludlow Museum, on the left, is housed in a building known as The Buttercross, built in the classical style in 1746, when the ground floor was a butter market.

There are ancient buildings aplenty in this little town, sat on a cliff above the River Teme, amid the stunning landscape of south Shropshire on the border of England and Wales. Its imposing Norman castle was among the first stone castles built in England, with construction starting around the year 1085. These days, its atmospheric ruins are a huge draw for visitors and often host weddings, corporate functions or its famous food festivals.