Martin Walton's Ludham Village Slides

Martin Walton was a long time Ludham resident and local artist. He first moved to Ludham in 1958. In later years he lived at Hawthorn End on Lovers Lane where he had his studio upstairs looking out over the fields towards Ludham Hall. Martin and his partner, Nancy Legg, were passionate about the environment at a time before this was a mainstream issue and they joined and helped form the Ludham Society which campaigned to save and improve the local environment as well as preserving the history of the village. The Ludham Society was, in some respects, a predecessor of the Ludham Archive Group.  Martin won awards for his campaigning and often gave talks about Ludham and its history. After Martin's death, the Ludham Archive was given the slides that Martin used to illustrate his talks. Sadly, the talks were not recorded, but the slides are well captioned and you can see the various slide shows by following the links below. This page also has some additional information about Martin and the Ludham Society.

Links to Martin's Slideshows Central area of the Village Stocks Hill Area Yarmouth and Staithe Roads Womack Water and Staithe Ludham Bridge and the River Ant Ludham Manor The Dutch House Garden The School Wildlife Garden The 1993 Floods in Ludham Ludham Marshes Ludham People Edward Seago Ludham Houses

Some of Martin's well captioned slides

The Ludham Society You can hear Martin and Nancy talking about the Ludham Society in this audio recording of a presentation they gave to the Ludham Archive Group. It was recorded on tape and so is in two parts. Sorry it is not the best quality, but it is nice to hear Martin and Nancy telling the story of their campaigning. Tape 1 Tape 2 Some of Martin's campaigns were controversial in Ludham at the time. Martin explains all about this in the recordings.

Nancy Legg Left - Nancy and Martin receive the CPRE Marsh Award.

Martin Walton Art

When Martin first came to Ludham, he often painted Ludham scenes such as the one below showing the Yarmouth Road.

Later in his career, Martin changed to abstract forms like the one below:

 
Inside Martin's Studio at Hawthorn End.

Pike's Nursery.

A family called Pike ran a small market garden here with greenhouses and vegetables. They had a small bungalow on the site. They came to the village after the war. The old couple died about 1988 and the developer envisaged a small bungalow estate on the site.

Martin Walton did sketches for a simple terrace development which would fit in with the existing housing at this edge of the village, with gardens at the front and parking at the rear. The planners liked these ideas and recommended that the developer should use this arrangement rather than bungalows. The builders agreed to do this, but added another row behind. However owing to the very high land prices of the time the builders went bankrupt before the back row was complete, and the succeeding builders completed it, slightly altering the plan by not having the archway through, and by making chalet bungalows on the western end of the group instead of continuing the terrace. Pillars can still be seen which would have supported the archway. This development received a lot of publicity and praise following an article in "Country Life" magazine, and a television programme. At the same time Martin received a letter from "Country Life" quoting a speech given by Prince Charles to the Royal Town Planning Institute praising the artist who had designed such a suitable development in a village setting. The County Council now uses photographs of it in its publicity material as a good example of new housing in villages.

Above - Pike's Nursery Development Right - Pillars for the archway

Hawthorn End, Lovers' Lane.

This was an early 1960's bungalow which, in 2000 AD had an added storey with timber cladding, balcony and clay pantiles completely disguising its previous form. This added space incorporated Martin Walton's studio.