And there’s more. In 2002 John Fleming and a few like-minded people started up a Slow Food branch based in Ludlow, that covers producers and lovers of ‘real’ food in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys. I met John at Ludlow’s annual food festival, where I attended a perry tasting in the Slow Food tent. John explained that, “there is now a Slow Food Foundation, which works internationally to assist artisan producers, promote local gastronomic traditions and safeguard specialty foods.

In Britain the current focus is on artisan Somerset cheddar, Old Gloucester cattle, single and double Gloucester cheese, and perry made the traditional way by small producers in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.”

John is a director of Slow Food UK, which received a message of support from HRH Prince Charles when it was launched last year. There are now over 30 local branches and 2,000 Slow Food members in the UK.

Fairtrade, tooA year after becoming a Slow Food town, Ludlow became a Fairtrade Town. Jane Straker, proprietor of Myriad Organics, was instrumental in this. Over the tempting cheese and deli counter in her shop, Jane told me that: “The Fairtrade Town Group is part of Ludlow 21, which encourages residents to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

We seemed to meet the criteria to become a Fairtrade Town – lots of shops and restaurants sold Fairtrade products, and several churches had Traidcraft stalls after services. We needed the town council’s agreement, and that was forthcoming. As a Fairtrade Town we now want more businesses, schools, churches, B&Bs and public bodies to buy Fairtrade products.”

Graeme Kidd has been Ludlow’s mayor for the past three years. Back in 1994, when a Tesco supermarket arrived in town, he was a key mover in starting the Food and Drink Festival. “There was no point in trying to fight Goliath,” he told me when we met at deGreys, Ludlow’s quintessentially English tearoom that’s been welcoming visitors and residents alike for 85 years.

“Much better to promote the town’s strengths, which are family-run businesses, personal service, quality food and drink producers. We decided to have a local food festival and a farmers market – before anyone else was doing things like this.”

Today the food and drink festival welcomes about 17,000 visitors over three days. Every event I attended was packed with enthusiastic foodies, and everyone I spoke to was having a wonderful time. The Sausage Trail and Real Ale Trail are especially popular, and mean that the whole town is involved in the festival.  

In December 2003 Ludlow was the first UK town to become a Cittaslow. Why is Ludlow the first UK Cittaslow? I asked Graeme. “It’s not so much that Ludlow became Slow,” he said. “It’s just that we were never fast. The Civic Society began protecting Ludlow’s buildings 50 years ago. The arts festival has been performing Shakespeare in the castle for 40 years. The food and drink festival is 12 years old. Our community groups have always been vibrant and active. DeGreys tea rooms probably haven’t changed all that much. We’ve been Slow for a long time.”

He explained that Cittaslow’s goals help local government focus on priorities. “Cittaslow gives us a wish list of things that put people and the environment first. It will help us spot things we can do, or things we shouldn’t do, that are sometimes obscured by the balance sheet. Cittaslow is about living at a human scale, where people have time to get to know each other, where our many clubs and societies support one another, where visitors are thought of as residents for a day.”

WI involvement

When I phoned Liz Woodall, who represents Ludlow’s WI on the Cittaslow committee, she certainly treated me as a resident. I was invited to join the WI’s monthly luncheon club at the Unicorn. Liz knows a thing or two about cooking. She has a collection of 5,500 cookbooks and lectures to WIs on “A Thousand Years of British Food and Cookbooks”.

“I’m 100 per cent behind the ethos of Cittaslow,” she told me. “The quality of life in Ludlow is fantastic. I don’t just mean the lovely old buildings, our wonderful butchers and bakers, the independent shops with personal service, and our three great annual festivals. It’s the spirit and people as well, which make it a Cittaslow. There’s a phenomenal range of groups and clubs, and WI members are involved in many of them.”  

During a leisurely lunch, I learned from various members that “when you buy pork here the butcher tells you which farm it’s from… we can get proper mutton… you can get real bread that’s had time to rise properly… if a shop doesn’t have what you want, they direct you to another shop or try to order it for you.” Liz said that she has never been into either of Ludlow’s supermarkets because “the independent shops have everything you could want, plus personal service.”

Early in 2005 the Italian president of Cittaslow asked Ludlow to become the headquarters of Cittaslow UK. The town agreed, and a new organisation, Cittaslow UK Ltd was formed to help roll the concept out. Two towns in Norfolk, Alysham and Diss, have already been accepted into the UK network, and other towns in England, Scotland and Wales are all about to begin their journeys towards Cittaslow status.