Plans to make Ripon a focal point for the festive season are underway.
Last year the covid lockdown meant that the city and its traders were unable to capitalise fully on the £65,000 spent on a major expansion of Christmas lights and displays.
The decorations, paid for out of the parish precept, are designed to make the city’s streets more attractive for local residents and help increase footfall to benefit businesses.
This year extension, will see a tree lit up to the side of Ripon Cathedral and lighting from Bedern Bank to the Canal Basin, along Park Street, Church Street and Coltsgate Hill.
Ripon Town Hall will be one of the focal points for Christmas lighting
The lighting will be in place before the switch on event on the evening of 20 November, when a free to attend tribute act concert will be held on Market Square.
On 5 and 12 December, artisan markets will be held on the square and free children’s fairground rides will be in operation on those dates.
At the full city council meeting on Monday, members approved the production of a brochure for distribution in Ripon and surrounding areas, which will publicise Christmas activities in the city.
The brochure has been produced in previous years, but the pandemic put paid to its publication last year.
Council leader Andrew Williams, said:
“We want to reach as many people as possible living in the broad hinterland of Ripon and invite them to join in the city’s Christmas celebrations.”
Councillor Chris Davis pointed out that posters for placement in shop windows have previously been produced alongside the brochure and he hoped the same would happen this year.
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Sharow school plants tree in honour of Queen
Sharow Church of England Primary School is playing its part in marking the Queen’s platinum jubilee by planting a tree.
The Queen, who is already the UK’s longest-serving monarch, will celebrate 70 years on the throne in June.
The Queen’s Green Canopy tree planting initiative is inviting everyone across the UK, from individuals and organisations to schools and businesses, to get involved
With October seeing the start of the tree planting season, the Bishop of Ripon, the Rt. Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, invited children at St John’s Sharow, to plant a hazel sapling in the school’s grounds.
Sharow CE Primary School
Executive head teacher Jacqui Palmer and the Revd. Ruth Newton, parish priest at St John’s Sharow, joined Dr Hartley at the planting ceremony, which was also attended by pupils who are members of the school council.
Before the planting, the children impressed the bishop with their knowledge of the importance of trees to the environment and prayers were said after the sapling had been put in place.
Dr Hartley told the Stray Ferret:
“The school grounds provide such a fitting setting for this special tree and I hope that the children, their parents and staff enjoy seeing it grow and flourish.
“It will be a reminder to them and future generations, of the service that the Queen has given to this country.”
The Woodland Trust, one of the organisations involved in the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, said:
“The Queen’s Green Canopy will create a network of individual trees, avenues, copses and whole woodlands in honour of the Queen’s service and the legacy she has built.
“This will create a green legacy of its own, with every tree planted bringing benefits for people, wildlife and climate, now and for the future.”
The photo shows members of the Sharow CE School Council at the planting with, from left: The Revd Ruth Newton, headteacher Jacqui Palmer and Bishop Dr Helen-Ann Hartley
The acrimonious struggle over the former Henry Jenkins Inn in Kirkby Malzeard has taken a new twist.
Last week campaigners handed a 500-plus name petition to Harrogate Borough Council calling for part of the closed-down and derelict premises to be re-listed as an asset of community value (ACV).
But now Justin Claybourn has taken the property off the market and informed the Henry Jenkins Community Pub campaign group (HJCP) he will not sell to them ‘at any time or any price’.
Mr Claybourn, whose successful planning appeal in December 2020 gives him permission to create a single dwelling in the part of the building that he owns, is now going to press ahead with plans to convert it to residential use and create a family holiday home.
Campaigners collecting names for their petition in Harrogate.
His business associate and agent David Fielder, who owns the pub group Fielder Holdings, told the Stray Ferret:
“Since 2018 Mr Claybourn has owned the old joiner’s shop, previously known as the eastern annex of the Henry Jenkins.
“The pub closed more than 10 years ago and Mr Claybourn has become increasingly annoyed with the campaign group’s actions, in particular their third attempt to have his property listed as an ACV even after his successful planning appeal.
“He directly holds HJCP responsible for the cost of defending the three ACV applications but further in his opinion the cost of his planning appeal. These costs exceed £25,000.”
Mr Fielder added:
“Over the past 10 years, nobody, including HJCP, has made a bid meeting the criteria that the property was on offer for — i.e. backed by hard cash, not pledges.
“With this in mind, following the latest move by HJCP, my client asked me to formally instruct them that his property has been removed from sale and will not return to the market.
“I was also instructed to advise them that due to their actions and costs they have made Mr Claybourn incur he would never consider a sale of his property at any time or at any price to HJCP.”
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Richard Sadler, press spokesman for the Henry Jenkins Community Pub group, said:
“This statement comes as no surprise to us and changes nothing: The only reason the Henry Jenkins has stood empty for the last 10 years is that Mr Fielder — and latterly his associate Mr Claybourn — have refused to sell it to anyone.
“We have submitted to the council statements from three prospective private buyers who wanted to buy and refurbish it as a pub and restaurant — including a Michelin two-star trained chef — but they were told either that the asking price had been vastly inflated or that the pub had been sold.
“The Henry Jenkins Community Pub group has since made five offers to buy the pub at or above the price set by an independent valuer – but all these offers have been refused.”
“Despite this – and despite previous statements by Mr Fielder saying he would never sell the pub to us – we remain open and willing to discuss terms for a purchase of the Henry Jenkins as a community facility.”
Ripon student earns £18,000 scholarship and a place at Sandhurst
A Ripon Grammar School student with ambitions of flying Apache helicopters has earned a place at a leading military school.
Marcus Bartlem, 17, has won an army scholarship worth up to £18,000, which will help fund him through university and guarantee a place to train as an officer at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
He was chosen out of thousands of young men and women from all over the country to get one of the 100 annual scholarships available.
Sandhurst’s alumni includes Winston Churchill and both Prince William and Prince Harry. Foreign monarchs, such as King Hussein of Jordan and the Sultan of Brunei, were also trained there.
Marcus said:
“I was extremely happy but also relieved when I heard that I had obtained the scholarship, as it was a long and tough process.
“I am very grateful to have been selected.”
Studying history, economics and chemistry at A-level, he will now benefit from army funding of £3,000 through his final school year and £2,000 for each year he is at university, where he will also be eligible for further army bursaries.
The Year 13 student added that he was looking forward to the leadership opportunities, alongside the prospects of adventure training and travel which army life offers.
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The application process took place over nine months. Following medical assessments, virtual interviews and cognitive tests, Marcus, whose father served as an RAF fighter pilot, was invited to the final army officer selection board, which took place over two days.
Fascinated by flying
Marcus completed a series of demanding interviews, planning exercises, cognitive and written tasks, leadership challenges and fitness tests including an obstacle course.
But it was all worth it when he was informed, three weeks later, that he had been successful:
He said:
“I’ve always been interested in the military, most likely as a result of my dad’s involvement in the RAF. I hope to join the Army Air Corps as an Apache pilot as flying has fascinated me for a long time.”
Planning to study history at university, his sporting achievements helped in the selection process.
As well as representing his school and local club in rugby, he enjoys biking and walking expeditions and is completing his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
Ripon council considers bid to buy Spa BathsRipon City Council is to consider bidding to buy the city’s Spa Baths as part of the campaign to keep the building in community use.
Harrogate Borough Council plans to sell the Grade II listed building when Ripon’s new pool opens at the end of the year.
It has identified an unnamed preferred buyer but last month’s decision to list the 116-year-old building as an asset of community value has put any sale on hold to give the community chance to raise funds to launch a bid.
Ripon City Council is now taking the first steps towards pursuing that option after taking part in an initial meeting with the preferred bidder.
At Monday’s full city council meeting, leader Andrew Williams said:
“We had a constructive discussion with the bidder and will continue to work with them and look at any proposals they have for community uses as part of redevelopment of the site.
“However, to ensure that we keep our options open, following Harrogate Borough Council’s agreement to list the building as an asset of community value, we need to take the process to the next stage.”
Ripon City Council is to request to be treated as a potential bidder.
Councillors agreed to a motion put forward by Cllr Williams to “submit a written request to Harrogate Borough Council to request to be treated as a potential bidder under the provisions of the Localism Act”.
Councillor Stuart Martin, who seconded the motion, was among the councillors who attended the meeting with the preferred bidder. He said:
“We will continue to talk with the bidder, but must take every step to secure Ripon City Council’s position, without putting unnecessary obstacles to further discussions in the way.”
Housing fears
The future of the Edwardian building has been uncertain since owner Harrogate Borough Council put it on the market in February, saying it would be surplus to requirements when Ripon’s new multi-million swimming pool opens.
This sparked fears the baths could be sold for housing.
The campaign to retain it for community use, led by Ripon City Council and Ripon Civic Society, received a boost last month when the building was designated an asset of community value.
The baths were converted from a spa to a public swimming pool in 1936 and has the distinction of being the only English spa to be opened by a member of the royal family.
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Poet Laureate brings the ‘primitive magic’ of verse to Ripon festival
Simon Armitage summed up the power of poetry when he read a selection of his works to a packed audience in Ripon on Saturday.
The Poet Laureate, whose poems brought laughter and sadness to 200 people at Ripon Grammar School, said words on a page take on a different character when spoken.
Armitage, who was the star attraction at the fourth Ripon Poetry Festival, described verse as having ‘a kind of primitive magic”.
The West Yorkshire-born and bred poet told the Stray Ferret he was delighted to perform at the four-day festival, where he brought some of his own primitive magic and talked about his local connections.
He said:
“My auntie lives in Ripon and I have many memories of visiting here and going to the cathedral and seeing the hornblower.”
The festival anthology of poems (left) and programme.
Poetry boom
Talking about lockdown, he said:
“Sales of poetry books have done well during the pandemic, as people have had more time to reflect.
“Many recalibrated their lives and decided they were not going back to the way things were before.”
Lockdown also gave Armitage, who was appointed to the 10-year office of Poet Laureate in May 2019, the opportunity to focus on his work.
He said:
“It gave me the time to complete my translation of the long medieval poem The Owl and the Nightingale.”
Saturday evening’s audience was given a taste of the epic poem, which focuses on the quarrelsome conversation between the two birds, as they show their mutual dislike.
The newly-published work featured recently on BBC Radio 4’s hit podcast, The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed.
There were also readings from Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems, a collection that provides a guided tour in verse of the village where Armitage grew up.
Ripon festival success
His lines, which paint a picture of home-town life and experiences, were very much in keeping with the theme of the festival.
Andy Croft, who was one of the organisers of the four-day event, that included 17 sessions at venues across the city, said:
“We are pleased to report that we are now the biggest festival of its kind in Yorkshire.”
Testimony to the growing popularity of poetry was the fact that this year’s festival anthology, The Other Side of the Looking Glass, contains 92 poems covering a broad spectrum of styles and based on a wide range of subjects, including life in lockdown and the environment.
Mr Croft pointed out:
“It contains poems from people of all ages, who live locally and is the largest edition we have published.”
Star of Scotland shines bright in a Sharow churchyard
Where, in the Ripon area, can you find an internationally-famous astronomer buried in a grave marked with a small pyramid-shaped monument and why?
The answers can be found in the churchyard of St John’s Sharow, where Charles Piazzi Smyth was laid to rest following his death on 21 February 1900.
Smyth was born in Naples on 3 January 1819. At the age of 26 he became the youngest-ever Astronomer Royal for Scotland — a title given to the director of the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh.
Smyth, who held the position for more than 40 years, was also professor of astronomy at Edinburgh University.
He has the distinction of being the man behind the introduction of Edinburgh Castle’s one o’clock gun, which is fired six days a week as a guide to shipping.
In an era of unprecedented industrial growth, which saw polluted skies obscure the stars, Smyth literally took his career to new heights when he and his wife climbed the mountains of Tenerife and used a 7.5 inch refracting telescope to view the night sky at altitude.
His pioneering work demonstrated the need for observatories to be located on high ground to achieve best results and he set the standard for astronomers across the globe, which saw him named as the ‘father of mountain astronomy’.
St John’s Sharow, the last resting place of Charles Piazzi Smyth and his wife Jessie
Move to Ripon
Claims made in his 1864 book The Great Pyramid: Its Secrets and Mysteries Revealed, including a conclusion that its construction was ‘guided by the hand of God’ were criticised and rejected by many of the scientific community and 10 years later, he resigned from The Royal Society.
Following his retirement in 1888, Smyth and his wife left Scotland and moved to a house called Clova, in Clotherholme Road, Ripon, where they lived in relative obscurity, away from members of Edinburgh’s scientific elite, who had turned their backs on him.
Smyth, who was also an accomplished photographer, artist and meteorologist, shares his grave in Sharow with his wife, Jessie, who died four years earlier.
A snapshot of their remarkable time together is captured in the words of a weather-beaten epitaph on the pyramid.
It says that Jessie was:
“His faithful and sympathetic friend and companion, through 40 years of varied scientific experiences, by land and sea abroad as well as at home, at 12,000 feet up in the atmosphere, on the wind swept peak of Tenerife, as well as underneath and upon the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
The reference to the Great Pyramid at Giza provides the reason for their unusual memorial.
In his epitaph, where key words are emphasised by capital letters, a posthumous message conveying the hurt feelings he took to his grave can be seen.
It says:
“As Bold in enterprise as he was Resolute in demanding a proper measure of public sympathy and support for Astronomy in Scotland, he was not less a living emblem of pious patience under Troubles and Afflictions and he has sunk to rest, laden with well-earned Scientific Honours, a Bright Star in the Firmament of Ardent Explorers of the Works of their Creator.”
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Ripon Operatic Society returns with Jesus Christ Superstar
Ripon Amateur Operatic Society will stage its first major production since covid tomorrow when it performs Jesus Christ Superstar.
The award-winning musical will be performed at various days over the next two weeks in the newly-refurbished theatre at Ripon Arts Hub on Allhallowgate.
The 120-seater theatre underwent a major refurbishment when it was forced to shut last year.
It has a new ventilation system, new seating, improved sound and lighting and a modernised bar.
The newly-refurbished Ripon Arts Hub.
Shows will be held on selected days over two weeks — October 7 to 9 and October 14 to 16 — with evening performances at 7.30pm and additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Saturday 9 and Saturday 16 October.
The rock opera, which follows Jesus’ last two days through the eyes of Judas Iscariot, is set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice.
It includes songs such as “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”, “Superstar” and “Heaven on Their Minds”.
Ripon Arts Hub re-opened in September after 18 months of fundraising by volunteers behind the scenes,
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The upgrade of the premises, which are owned by the society, was partly funded by a £54,339 grant from the government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, launched to help cultural organisations and heritage sites to recover from covid.
As well as being the setting for the society’s own productions and rehearsals, the re-vamped venue provides Ripon’s first community arts space.
Tickets are available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/riponoperatics
Dean’s banquet raises £16,000 for Ripon CathedralThe Dean of Ripon’s annual banquet has raised £16,000 for the city’s cathedral.
Last year’s event was cancelled due to covid but the 2021 evening of feast and fundraising was attended by 150 guests, including sponsors, local businesses, parishioners and members of the public.
The Very Rev John Dobson, said:
“What a pleasure it was to welcome the guests to the 2021 Dean’s banquet in the spectacular surroundings of Ripon Cathedral.
“For over 1,300 years people have gathered in this sacred space to celebrate life’s joys and blessings. I am extremely grateful for the remarkable levels of generosity that have been shown by the community, particularly over the last year.”
Dean John said thanks for the generosity shown.
The sparking evening was supported by business partners Raworths solicitors, in Harrogate, and wealth management firm Brewin Dolphin, Leeds.
A champagne reception welcomed guests back in to the cathedral once more and a four course dinner, provided by the Yorkshire Party Company, was followed by a live auction conducted by John Tennant and a silent auction.
A number of high value raffle prizes were donated, including dinner for two at Grantley Hall, two cases of wine and a family season pass to Newby Hall.
The prize draw proved popular, raising £1,170 on the night. The vouchers and prizes were donated by local businesses keen to support the cathedral as it recovers from the financial impact of the pandemic.
Guests were entertained by magician Rob Hutchinson and danced to a silent disco wearing headphones.
The date of next year’s banquet will be Friday 14 October to mark the end of the 1,350th anniversary of St Wilfrid celebrations, which will be taking place throughout 2022.
For further information about how to get involved or to pre-book places contact margarethammond@riponcathedral.org.uk.
Ripon playground remains closed due to rats
Three weeks after rat infestation closed a children’s play area in Ripon, the gates remain chained up.
Vermin control measures are in place at Quarry Moor playground, which is owned and operated by Ripon City Council.
To tackle the problem, the council has been clearing discarded food waste and put up signs asking visitors to the adjacent nature reserve to take their rubbish home with them.
Discarded food items attracted rats to the area.
The playground will remain closed until the rat problem, which poses a threat to public health, is eradicated.
Among those monitoring the situation and removing dead rats from the site is Trevor Welbourn, who regularly visits Quarry Moor park with his Labrador, Sparky.
Mr Welbourn told the Stray Ferret:
“Before the pest control measures were put in place, I was here one morning and there must have been at least 20 rats in the car park, eating discarded food.
“I come most days. I’ve removed 16 in the past week.”
Helping to rid the area of rodents — Trevor Welbourn and Rocky.
A statement by the city council when the park closed on September 15 said:
“The rat problem is worse than ever this year and we have unfortunately had to take the decision to close the playground on the grounds of public health.
“We will work with our partners at Harrogate Borough Council to address the pest problem and will explore all options available, including the use of poison, with both HBC and Natural England.
“We will make changes to the way rubbish is death with on site, all bins will be removed and we encourage all visitors to take their waste home with them.
“The volume of waste collected on site is huge. We usually collect a minimum of eight bags of rubbish per day, which is a constant food supply for the ever growing rat population.
“We will trial a metal trade waste bin in the car park in the short term but ask everyone to take their rubbish home.”
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The city council announced a refurbishment of the park this year, funded by council taxpayers through their parish precept.
The park, just off the A61 on the southern approach to Ripon, was donated to the city in 1945 by Alderman Thomas Fowler Spence.