IT was a day when a little bit of history was made in Ludlow.

The hundreds of people who lined the streets of the town will be able to say in generations to come that they were there.

Colour and pageantry came to the historic border town for the granting of the freedom of Ludlow to the 1st battalion Royal Welsh Regiment.

The freedom was given and received 325 years after the forerunner to the regiment was founded in the grounds of Ludlow castle and it was from here that proceedings began on a dull Saturday in early autumn.

Those who turned out had plenty of chance to see the procession led by a regimental goat as it made its way through the town via Station Drive before turning back up Corve Street to test the stamina of the soldiers.

This was a fitting sight, coming as it does, in the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

Mayor of Ludlow Paul Draper who presented the freedom scroll to Brigadier GH Wheeler CBE Commander 143 Brigade who in return gave a regimental gift.

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

It was in 1997 that the regiment last march through Ludlow at a special homecoming parade after service in Bosnia.

Among the famous soldiers who served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers are the war poets Seigfried 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 was formed on St David's Day 2006 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 and then the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

The awarding of the Freedom of Ludlow was the latest step in the long history of the link between the regiment and the town of Ludlow.