Ripon - Minster, Monastery, Education, Population, Transport

54°08N 1°31W, pop (2000e) 13 700. Town in North Yorkshire, N England, UK; reckoned to be England's second oldest town; light engineering; racecourse; Cathedral of St Peter and St Wilfrid (7th–15th-c); 13th-c Wakeman's House; Fountains Abbey ruins nearby.

Ripon is a small cathedral city in Yorkshire, 214 miles NNW of London, England. The city had a population of 16,468 at the 2001 census, making it the fourth smallest city in England after Wells, Ely and the City of London (in the rest of the United Kingdom, St David's, Bangor, and Armagh are also smaller).

It is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the streams Laver and Skell with the River Ure, which is crossed by a fine bridge of nine arches. Ripon is part of the Skipton and Ripon parliamentary constituency.

Ripon was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and remained a municipal borough until 1974, when under the Local Government Act 1972 it became part of the Harrogate district. Ripon became a successor parish, with a parish council called Ripon City Council.

Minster

The cathedral, which the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica described as "not ranking among those of the first class", is nevertheless celebrated for its fine proportions, and is of great interest from the various styles of architecture which it includes. The Minster was founded on the ruins of St Wilfrid's abbey about 680, but of this Saxon building nothing now remains except the crypt, called St Wilfrid's Needle.

The present building was begun by Archbishop Roger (1154-1181), and to this transition-period belong the transepts and portions of the choir. The western front and towers, fine specimens of Early English, were probably the work of Walter de Grey, archbishop of York (d.1255), and about the close of the century the eastern portion of the choir was rebuilt in the Decorated style.

It became a cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Ripon, in 1836, with the creation of the Diocese of Ripon, the first new diocese to be created in England since the Reformation. This also led to the recognition of city status for Ripon.

There are a number of monuments of historical and antiquarian interest. The diocese, called 'Ripon and Leeds' since 1999, includes rather less than one-third of the parishes of Yorkshire. Bishop Mount, the home of the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, lies about a mile to the North of Ripon, while the old Bishop's Palace, a Victorian building in Tudor style, is situated in extensive grounds about a mile to the West. In the vicinity is the domain of Studley Royal, the seat of the Marquess of Ripon, which contains the celebrated ruins of Fountains Abbey.

Monastery

Ripon (In Rhypum, Ad Ripam) owed its origin to the monastery founded in the 7th century. Ripon is said to have been made a royal borough by Alfred the Great, and in 937, Athelstan is stated to have granted to the monastery sanctuary, freedom from toll and taxes, and the privilege of holding a court, although both charters attributed to him are known to be spurious.

In 1318, when the Scots invaded England, Ripon only escaped being burnt a second time by the payment of 1000 marks.

The archbishops of York as lords of the manor had various privileges in the town, among which were the right of holding a market and fair, and Archbishop John, being summoned in the reign of Henry I to answer by what right he claimed these privileges, said that he held them by prescription and by the charter of Bang Æthelstan. The fairs and markets belonged to the archbishops of York until they were transferred to the bishop of Ripon in 1837. In 1857 they were transferred to the ecclesiastical commissioners, from whom they were purchased by the corporation of Ripon in 1880. From before the Conquest until the incorporation charter of 1604 Ripon was governed by a wakeman and 12 elders, or aldermen, but in 1604 the title of wakeman was changed to mayor, and 12 aldermen and 24 common councilmen were appointed.

The manufacture of cloth was at one time carried on in Ripon, but was almost lost in the 16th century when the town was visited by Leland. The making of spurs succeeded the cloth manufacture and became so noted that the saying "as true as Ripon rowells" was a well-known proverb. Ripon was summoned to send two members to parliament in 1295, and occasionally from that time until 1328-1329.

This entry was originally based on material from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Education

Secondary schools

Ripon Grammar School

Ripon Grammar School is a co-educational selective intake, state secondary grammar school.

The school became coeducational in the 1960s. Although most pupils are day-pupils from Ripon itself, there are attached, separate, boys and girls boarding houses.

Ripon was the first school catchment area in England in which parents voted to keep a selective school in 2000.

In January 2006 the school was awarded engineering status, which will help fund the improvement of facilities in the science and technology departments.

Ripon College

Ripon College (from 1999), formerly Ripon City School, is a former secondary modern school across Clotherholme road from Ripon Grammar.

Independent schools

The Cathedral Choir School is a co-ed preparatory school founded in 1960. The school is a member of The Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools and The Choir Schools' Association.

College of Ripon and York St John

The college descended from two Anglican teacher training colleges, which were founded in York in 1841 (for men) and 1846 (for women). In 1862, the women's college relocated to Ripon. The colleges merged in 1974 to form the College of Ripon and York St John. Between 1999 and 2001, all activities were transferred to York and the college received the name York St John College. The former buildings of the Ripon college and its halls of residence have subsequently been redeveloped by property developers.

Population

Ripon's blend of rural-poor, lower and upper middle class types, and a few wealthy landowners make the city, in socioeconomic terms, a fascinatingly diverse place, given its comparatively small population. Ethnically, however, Ripon noticeably lacks diversity, particularly in comparison to towns in West Yorkshire.

Transport

Ripon once had a railway station, on the North Eastern Railway, later part of the LNER. Nevertheless, Ripon still joined a list, also including Wells and Southwell, of English cathedral towns and cities that have lost their railway. In recent years there has been a movement to restore the line, at least between Harrogate and Ripon, with the cost being an estimated £40 million. Ironically, the city's bypass, completed in the mid 1990s, utilises part of the railway line's course just to the east of the city, and crosses the River Ure just yards from where the railway used to. Reconstruction of the railway is not impossible, though a filled-in cutting and short tunnel just north of Wormald Green would have to be re-excavated, but the line could not follow its former route through Ripon itself, and could not use the original station. This might be to the line's benefit, as more people had used the former station to travel south than north, but with the station situated on the north-eastern edge of the city, it had been criticised for being over a mile from the city centre and in the wrong direction.