Most house clearance in Ludlow is arranged by somebody who isn't in Ludlow. That has been the shape of this work for us since 2007. A house in SY8 that has to be emptied. A son, a daughter or a solicitor at the other end of a phone line in another county, fitting it round a job, a funeral and a sale date. So the first thing to say is that you don't have to be here to get it done.
The first Ludlow clearance on our books went out on a Tuesday at the beginning of April 2019, and the whole house came out in a single load. SY8, one van, one team, one day. The person instructing us wasn't in Shropshire at all — the address we held for them was down in East Sussex, better than four hours away by road, which is a pattern we see constantly in this town. Somebody inherits or sells a house in Ludlow while living at the other end of the country, and everything has to be arranged by phone and email with a key left with a neighbour or an agent. We never met them face to face. The house was emptied in the day, the paperwork followed in writing, and the matter was closed by email a fortnight later.
It is the ordinary shape of what house clearance in Ludlow throws at us. A property emptied at a distance, nobody standing over anybody, and a written record at the end for whoever has to file it.
One load, and what that actually means
People hear "a load" and picture a car boot. It isn't. A load is the full body of a Luton box van packed properly by three people who do it every day — furniture broken down, wardrobes taken apart on the landing, boxes squared off rather than thrown in. A modest two- or three-bedroom house in Ludlow, where the family have already been through it and taken what they want, will often go in one. A four-bedroom with a loft nobody has opened since the seventies, a garage, and a shed at the bottom of the garden will not.
We come at nine in the morning and we aim to finish the property the same day. The team leader walks the house with you first, or with the agent, and says plainly whether it is one day or two before anyone starts carrying. If you want a figure before that, ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page and you'll have one back. That is the whole answer we give on cost: photographs or a phone call, then a figure, free and with nothing to sign.
Access and parking for a house clearance in Ludlow
Ludlow is a medieval grid with Georgian fronts bolted onto it, and that has consequences for a clearance. Broad Street is handsome and it is also steep, narrow and lined with listed buildings, so a van has to go on the double yellows with someone standing with it while the team walk the sofa out. Corve Street drops away sharply towards the Corve; Old Street and Lower Broad Street are the same story, and Lower Broad is the one where the pavement barely takes two people abreast. Doorframes in these houses are original and we'd rather take a door off its hinges than put a mark on one.
Castle Square has markets running through the week, and on market days the top of the town is simply not a place to park a Luton. If your property is on the square or just off it, tell us when you book and we'll set the arrival time round it, or work from Galdeford. Down the hill across Ludford Bridge, or over towards Sheet Road and Rocks Green, access is far easier — driveways, room to turn, and a van that can sit outside the door all day. The stone terraces up at Clee Hill are a different job again, with the weather and the wind to think about.
The patch we cover from here
Around Ludlow we work the SY7 and SY8 districts — Craven Arms, Onibury, Bromfield, Bucknell, Leintwardine, Stanton Lacy, Ashford Carbonell, Caynham and Richards Castle. North up the A49 we're regularly in Church Stretton and Shrewsbury, and out west into the hill country at Lydbury North and Bishop's Castle, where a farmhouse clearance can mean a track rather than a road. Further on we cover Oswestry, Ellesmere, Whitchurch, Llanymynech and Market Drayton, and east into the TF and WV districts at Shifnal, Broseley, Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth. Shropshire Council is the unitary authority for most of that area; Telford and Wrekin has its own council, and the Welsh side of Llanymynech falls to Powys.
Four of those places have pages of their own, and they are the ones a Ludlow job most often sits next to in the diary. North of us it is house clearance in Shrewsbury, the county town and the biggest of them; south down the A49 into Herefordshire it is house clearance in Hereford. For the smaller places, we do house clearance in Whitchurch up in the north of the county and house clearance in Ledbury over the Herefordshire side. Anywhere else on that list, ring and ask — we'd rather tell you no on the phone than waste your morning.
The station, and how we actually arrive
Ludlow has its own station on the Welsh Marches line, the Shrewsbury to Hereford run, with Craven Arms and Church Stretton the next stops north. It's useful to know if you're coming from away to open up a house for us. Plenty of executors do exactly that, train in for the morning, hand over the key, and go home in the evening with the property empty. Our vans come by road, up or down the A49 depending on the day, and we're at the door for nine unless we've agreed otherwise with you.
Sorting, reuse and the transfer station
Furniture that somebody else can still use doesn't belong in a skip, so anything sound is offered on to reuse projects and charity shops before it goes near a lorry. Shropshire has a lot of them and they are choosy, which is fair enough. What can't be re-homed is sorted for recycling and the remainder goes into the regulated disposal chain, weighed in and recorded at a permitted site. Our waste carrier licence number is CBDU419679, we're insured, and the paperwork for your load follows in writing so an executor has something to put on file.
Fridges and freezers have to be degassed by someone licensed to do it, so they travel apart from the rest and are handled under their own rules. Mattresses are the same story: they can't be tipped loose and have to go through a dedicated stream. Sofas, armchairs and anything else with treated foam inside it fall under the POPs regulations that came in in 2023, which means they are kept separate from the general load and incinerated rather than recycled. Tins of paint, weedkiller, old chemicals from the garden shed and gas cylinders are the items we most often have to leave behind. They need a proper hazardous route, and we'll tell you where to take them rather than pretend otherwise.
Probate house clearance in Ludlow, and houses nobody has touched
A good share of what we do in south Shropshire is probate work. We're used to dealing with an estate rather than a person, to waiting for a completion date before anything moves, and to being told a week beforehand that the sale has slipped again. That's normal. Say so and we'll deal with it. A probate house clearance in Ludlow is planned around the grant and the sale, not around our diary, and if you need us to hold a date open while the paperwork drags on, ask. There is more on how we handle estate work on our probate house clearance page.
Full houses don't put us off either. If a place is packed to the ceiling, if there are forty years of newspapers and every wardrobe is solid, that's simply more loads and possibly a second day. The team leader will look at it on the morning and tell you which. Nobody comments and nobody photographs anything. What we do ask is that you flag anything genuinely unpleasant when you book, because that changes the kit we bring. Items to be left behind are noted on the booking form and honoured — carpets, curtains, a piano, white goods staying with the sale, whatever it is, write it down and it stays.
Other kinds of house clearance in Ludlow
Garage and loft clearance in Ludlow
A fair share of the calls we get from SY8 aren't for a whole house at all. Garage and loft clearance in Ludlow is its own job. A loft hatch on a landing with no boarding above it, a garage on a shared drive that hasn't opened since the handle went, a coal shed, a summerhouse gone soft at the corners. We bring boards and lights for the loft and take it out in bags down a proper ladder, not over the banister.
Hoarder house clearance in Ludlow
Where a house has filled up over decades, the work is slower, dirtier and needs more people, and it is nearly always more than one day. We go room by room, we look inside everything before it goes on the van because papers and old photographs turn up in the oddest places, and we don't make a performance of it. See hoarder house clearance for how those days are run.
End of tenancy and flat clearance in SY8
Landlords and letting agents in Ludlow ring us at the end of a tenancy when somebody has gone and left the place half full. Flats above the shops in the centre are the awkward ones — narrow stairs, a single door onto the street, and nowhere to load. If it's only a few items rather than a whole property, that's house rubbish removal rather than a clearance, and it's a shorter visit.
Who we invoice, and when
We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly — you don't have to settle it yourself and then claim it back from the estate later. Payment can come out of the estate, and the invoice goes to whichever address the solicitor tells us to use. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front; the invoice follows after the house is empty, together with the waste transfer paperwork the estate will want on file. If the sale date moves, tell us and we'll move with it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a house clearance in Ludlow cost?
Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs of the rooms, the loft and the garage through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure back for your property. It's free and there's no obligation. We don't publish anything here, because a three-bed at Rocks Green and a packed cottage up at Clee Hill are not the same job.
Can you invoice the solicitor or take it from the estate?
Yes. We invoice solicitors and executors directly every week, and payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit — the invoice follows once the house is empty, with the waste transfer note.
How long does a probate house clearance in Ludlow take?
Most clearances of an ordinary two- or three-bedroom Ludlow house are a single day, starting at nine. A four-bedroom with a full loft, a garage and outbuildings is usually two. The team leader tells you which on the morning, before anything is loaded.
Do I have to be there on the day?
No. Plenty of our Ludlow work is done with a key from an agent or a neighbour and a phone call at the end. We'll ring you when the house is empty and send photographs of the cleared rooms if you want them.
Do you cover the villages around Ludlow?
Yes — Craven Arms, Bucknell, Leintwardine, Bromfield, Onibury, Ashford Carbonell, Caynham, Richards Castle and the rest of SY7 and SY8. Farm cottages down a track are fine; tell us about the track when you ring, so we send the right van.
What won't you take?
Paint, weedkiller, garden chemicals, gas bottles, asbestos and anything else classed as hazardous. Those need a licensed hazardous route and we'll point you at the right one. Everything else — furniture, white goods, carpets, the loft, the shed, the lot — goes.
Booking one
Ring 0800 046 5555 or fill in the form on this page with the postcode district, the number of bedrooms, and whether there's a loft, garage, shed or garden to deal with. Photographs help more than descriptions. You'll have a figure for the job before anyone sets off, a date that suits the sale rather than us, and a licensed team at the door at nine with the paperwork to follow.
