By Michael Baws

WORK is well under way to spruce up St John's Garden, where an important section of Ludlow's medieval town wall is being saved from further collapse.

Workmen have spent the past few weeks sorting through stone that has fallen into the garden, south of the wall.

Work was due to begin on Monday removing vegetation and creepers that may have added to the problem.

This will enable a detailed survey to take place before a repair specification is prepared.

"There will be a significant change to the appearance of the wall in the area of the garden," South Shropshire District Council's conservation officer Colin Richards explained.

"The surveyor needs full access and simply can't do the job properly through dense foliage.

"The wall needs to be repaired and kept in good order as a matter of public safety as well as to preserve Ludlow's heritage."

The work in St John's Garden, which runs along the road between Old Street and Broad Street, will be part of the brief for a newly-appointed firm of landscape architects, said the town's mayor Graeme Kidd.

"They will look at all the amenity areas in Ludlow to provide us with a planting scheme that will make the foliage easy and inexpensive to maintain while maximising the attractiveness of our public spaces," he added.

" We'll ask them to cast an eye over the gardens as part of that exercise."