LUDLOW will have one of its most colourful and historic days when the Freedom of the Town is granted on Saturday to the Royal Welch Regiment.

There will be major road closures in the morning to make way for a procession around the town led by the regimental goat.

It all starts at Ludlow Castle at 10am and sees soldiers marching through the town centre before making their way down Station Road before turning back up Corve Street.

The day marks the 325th anniversary of the raising of the Royal Welch Fusiliers by Lord Herbert at Ludlow Castle on March 16 1689.

Former mayor Jim Smithrs, who championed the plan to grant the Freedom of the Town, said: "As well as being the 325th anniversary of the raising of the Royal Welch, 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, so this is the perfect time to commemorate the gratitude of the people of Ludlow to the soldiers past and present who have served this country, not least the Royal Welsh Regiment and its predecessors."

The Royal Welch last marched through the town in 1997 at a special homecoming parade after service in Bosnia.

"Ludlow's association with the Royal Welsh Regiment goes back centuries and it will be wonderful to welcome the regiment home to where it was in part founded so long ago,” said Paul Draper, the current Mayor.

“We in Ludlow are proud of our military connections and none more so than being the birthplace of such an illustrious regiment."

Among the famous soldiers who served with the Royal Welch are the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves. Soldiers of the Royal Welch took part in the famous Christmas Day truce in 1914 when British and German soldiers had a game of football in No-man's-Land.

The Royal Welsh Regiment can boast 43 Victoria Crosses, among them the seven of the 11 which were awarded at Rorke's Drift in January 1879 when the 24th South Wales Borderers (then the 2nd Warwickshire Regiment) defended a tiny outpost against thousands of Zulus during the Boer War in South Africa.

On St David’s day in 2006 The Royal Welsh Regiment was formed from the Royal Welch Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Wales. The Royal Welch began as Herbert's Regiment of Foot before becoming the 23rd Regiment of Foot, The Prince of Wales' Own Welsh Fusiliers and then the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.