PLANS to honour a once-celebrated musician, composer and patron with a blue plaque may need tweaking first – owing to adding 100 years to his lifetime!

Ross-on-Wye Town Council is seeking listed building consent (application 260089) to erect a plaque to Bernhard Molique Carrodus on the wall of the town’s Corn Exchange.

The violinist and composer played for Queen Victoria at Balmoral and toured with famous singers in the 19th century, as well as featuring at “smoking concerts” within the old High Street building.

The application says the plaque was approved by the council’s Community, Markets and Tourism Subcommittee after having been proposed by a member of the public.

But an accompanying design for the plaque (or as the council’s consultation page has it, “plague”) gives Mr Carrodus’ dates as 1802-1969 – making him 167 years old when he died. The actual year of his death appears to have been 1869.

Last October the town council unveiled a plaque at the town’s Hope & Anchor pub and restaurant to locals Dale “Buffin” Griffin and Pete Overend Watts, co-founders of 1970s rock band Mott the Hoople, coinciding with the MottFest event in the town celebrating the band’s legacy.

A plaque honouring William Gilpin, who in 1770 published what is considered the first ever tourist guidebook – on the River Wye from Ross to Chepstow – is also planned for the town.

The three-storey Corn Exchange building, which is Grade II-listed, was previously used as the town council offices but is “now vacant”.

Opened as a butter and poultry market in 1862, the original Corn Exchange building burned down in 1939, before being rebuilt as a theatre and cinema.

The application also proposes removing the town council’s lettering and crest from above the main entrance, as offices have relocated to Cantilupe Road.

It also seeks permission to upgrade a fire-resistant internal door and to replace a rotting windowsill.