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Tuesday 15 September 2020

Ripon



The city of Ripon is quite compact, only a city because of its cathedral status. It acts as a centre for the surrounding area, with an outdoor market, supermarkets and retail stores. It is also a tourist destination because of the cathedral, its history and its proximity to the World Heritage Site of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal. 

It started out as a centre for the wool and cloth trade, linked to the monastery at Fountains Abbey. It became famous for manufacturing spurs in the 16th century. (Not so much demand for those these days!) During the two world wars, military training camps were established in the area and its military links continue. 

Ripon is also famous for having a bellman who rings a bell to open the market and a hornblower, who sounds a horn in the market square each evening. These are both ancient traditions. The hornblower is 'the wakeman', the one who used to stay awake at night patrolling to keep the townsfolk safe. He sounded the horn to 'set the watch': to let the good folk know that they could go to bed and sleep in peace. The obelisk in the market square has a horn at its top. 


Ripon has narrow streets and some very old buildings. It ought to be quite photogenic but frustratingly I never seem to find its beauty, feeling perhaps that it doesn't know how to make the best of itself. There are a lot of tatty empty premises and a huge amount of intrusive signage. It's a bit better now traffic has largely been diverted from the centre but I still find it hard to make visual sense of, compared to some of our other famous cities and towns. 


In theory you can walk along the riverside; in practice this was difficult, with bits of the path closed and lots of overhanging foliage.  


The centre does seem to have some attractive residential places, many of them so well blended in that it is hard to tell if they are new builds or adapted properties. I think that, like Harrogate not far away, there are quite a lot of retirees there though as a whole the centre doesn't exude the same air of prosperity as Harrogate. 



5 comments:

  1. As pretty rural market towns my delightful Hameln and Ripon have much in common. Here there are strict rules on signage. A little man from the Rathaus comes to check and often they must be removed. The Stadtwerke keeps the riverside and much else spruce and the gardens full of flowers. Of course nowhere is perfect, but my little Hameln certainly does its best. Ripon has much potential, all it needs is the will.

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  2. So many small towns are struggling to keep up their appearance these days; shops are unable to make sufficient profits. I did read though that some of these market towns are seeing a revival as less people are wanting to go to major urban areas in the current pandemic.

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  3. Sorry that the photo ops didn't occur for you...but thanks for showing us what you could. I like the idea of the river homes and the continuous gardens rather than divided ones with fences along the river.

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  4. Your view of that bridge appeals to me.

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  5. It feels like many places are struggling these days!

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