A veil of secrecy surrounds the Coco Chanel wedding dress now on display a Ripon Cathedral.

The velvet winter gown, created by the French fashion icon, was not for a princess or a duchess.

It was made in Paris by the famous designer as a wedding present for the daughter of a leading British industrialist.

Chanel’s close friend was due to marry a member of parliament, but the marriage at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in late 1923 did not take place.

Some of the stylish gowns that will be on display at Ripon Cathedral until 19 September

Kevin Thornhill, who is curating the A Century of Wedding Gowns exhibition at the cathedral, told the Stray Ferret:

“The bride had other ideas from her parents and eloped with her father’s chauffeur three days before the wedding.”

Of the 200 gowns and accessories in a collection assembled by Mr Thornhill over 40 years, Chanel’s classic creation, with its intricate point d’Alençon needle lace and wax orange blossom headdress incorporates an air of mystery.

He said:

“It was provided for the collection by a private individual, with only limited information.”

Mr Thornhill has endeavoured to discover the name of the person for whom Chanel made the dress, but despite his extensive research on he has not yet been able to unearth the identity of the mystery woman or the jilted honourable gentleman.

Like the opening chapters of an Agatha Christie novel, this intriguing exhibit raises many questions, but other wedding gowns that can be seen at the cathedral until 19 September, have received wide media coverage.

County Durham-born designer Mr Thornhill, served his time with David and Elizabeth Emanuel in London’s Mayfair and worked on the famous dress that the late Princess Diana wore on her wedding day.

A copy of the gown with its show-stopping and style-setting long train, will be modelled on the catwalk at two cathedral fashion shows.

The shows, both on July 29, mark the 40th anniversary of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles’ wedding.

Also on display at next month’s fashion shows will be copies of the gowns from the royal collection, including those of the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal, along with exact copies of the tiaras they wore at their weddings.

Read more:

• Ripon Cathedral reveals what royal brides wore for their weddings
• Community curator appointed by Ripon Museum Trust

Tickets for the shows are now on sale via the Ripon Cathedral website.

The exhibition featuring 50 wedding gowns from 1885 to the present day is free to enter and open daily.

Independent Ripon councillors have accused North Yorkshire County Council of getting its road repairs priorities wrong.

They have asked the highway authority to explain the rationale behind resurfacing rural lay-bys instead of repairing city centre roads.

Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams told the Stray Ferret:

“Along a 16-mile stretch of road between Hawes and Leyburn, lay-bys have been re-surfaced to a very high standard, while many roads in Ripon are in desperate need of major work.

Pictured above is one of the recently re-surfaced lay-bys on the A684 Hawes to Leyburn Road and below is a section of Market Place East in Ripon

Barrie Mason, North Yorkshire County Council’s assistant director for highways and transportation, said:

 “The improvement work to lay-bys is funded by the government’s Safer Roads Fund, which has the aim of reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on the county’s roads.

“The Safer Roads Fund can only be used on certain roads within the county which meet the strict government criteria and is not to be used for routine maintenance.

“We have a comprehensive programme of planned maintenance schemes based on annual surveys of the whole road network that has produced a long-term trend of improving road condition.

“Ripon Market Place is being considered for future funding within our forward programme for 2022/23.

“A number of the areas of most concern are associated with poorly performing utility reinstatements and we are seeking urgent action on these from the companies concerned.”

Cllr Pauline McHardy said:

“We want all roads in the county to be safe and it is my view that the four roads around Market Place and other parts of the city centre are a danger to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, because of the state they are in.”

Her fellow city and Harrogate district council colleague, Sid Hawke, added:

“We keep asking for proper repairs to be done and while we wait, the road surfaces get worse and worse by the day.”

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For next year, Ripon is planning a major programme of events to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

Mayor of Ripon, Cllr Eamon Parkin, said:

“I just hope that the roads in and around the city centre have been fixed by then.”

Dr Laura Allan has been appointed as community curator of Ripon Museum Trust, which runs the city’s three museums.

Her role will involve working with local organisations, community groups and residents to increase engagement, promote creativity and generate a sense of place and improved mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Allan joins from Severndroog Castle in Shooter’s Hill, London, where she was employed as heritage manager. The castle is a community-run organisation and she was hired to reopen the building to the public after being closed for 30 years.

She has also worked and volunteered at various museums, including the Durham Light Infantry Museum, Leeds Museums and Galleries, the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and Whitehall (a Tudor house) in London

Dr Allan will increase community engagement with Ripon’s museums

Helen Thornton, director at Ripon Museum Trust, said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Laura to our team. She brings a wealth of experience and ideas to her new role.

“Her skills in community engagement will be a huge asset to us at the trust, and to Ripon generally, as we work together with local people and organisations to recover from the pandemic.”

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Dr. Allan said:

“I grew up in County Durham and have been looking forward to moving back up north to be closer to my family.

“I can’t wait to explore the North Yorkshire countryside through walking and other outdoor activities. Combining this love of nature and the arts is really important to my work, promoting positive wellbeing in our local community.”

Dr Allan studied for a BA in history at Sunderland University, a MA in art gallery and museum studies at Leeds University and completed her PhD in the public history of the criminal justice system with the Open University.

She has presented at conferences in New Zealand, Vienna and Scotland, discussing the differences between academic and museum interpretations of criminal justice history.

Ripon’s Workhouse, Prison and Police and Old Courthouse museums are open from Tuesday to Sunday.

A Century of Wedding Gowns at Ripon Cathedral features dresses from 1885 until the present day.

The collection includes a copy of the dress worn by Katherine Worsley for her marriage to Edward, Duke of Kent, at York Minster in 1961.

The exhibition’s curator is Kevin Thornhill, who worked for David and Elizabeth Emanuel on the famous long-train dress worn by Princess Diana for her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.

On July 29, to mark the 40th anniversary of that royal wedding at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, there will be two fashion shows at Ripon Cathedral.

These will feature a copy of the dress and tiara worn by the late princess.

The exhibition illustrates the nuanced changes in wedding gowns and accessories over more than five decades

Mr Thornhill said:

“During my time working with David and Elizabeth Emanuel in London, I was given the absolute honour of being a member of the team who made the wedding gown.”

The finale of next month’s fashion show will include copies of the gowns from the royal collection, including those of the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Margaret and Princess Anne, along with exact copies of the tiaras worn at the weddings.

Something old, something new …

As well as royalty, the exhibition has a local theme.

It includes the dress worn by Christine Wood on her big day, in May 1964, when she married at Ripon Cathedral. Mrs Wood, who lives in Harrogate with her husband, Tony, contacted the organisers after hearing about the exhibition and donated her gown for the display.

She said:

“Having thought that I had lost my wedding dress during a house move, it turned up in a box in the loft years later and I love the fact that my wedding dress will once again be inside the cathedral after 57 years!”

Christine Wood and her husband Tony, with the dress she wore on their wedding day in 1964

Other items that will be on show until September include a gown donated by Kleinfeld, New York – known for the TV programme ‘Say Yes to the Dress’.

Fans of TV show Downton Abbey will be able to see a copy of the Crawleys’ Downton Tiara, alongside a wedding gown from 1898.

A 1923 winter velvet wedding gown, handmade by Coco Chanel for a family friend, will also be among the 50 on display.

The exhibition will run until September and shows are being supported by the cathedral’s business partner, Raworths Solicitors of Harrogate.

A rededication service for a remote rural cemetery near Thruscross will take place next month.

The isolated moorland burial site was opened before the village of West End was flooded in 1966 to create a reservoir to serve West Yorkshire.

Beneath the waters lie the ruined remains of a church, churchyard, school, houses and other buildings.

All residents of West End were relocated from their Washburn Valley homes before construction work on the dam began.

At the same time, the new cemetery was opened so that the bodies exhumed from the churchyard could be reburied.

Before the village disappeared Atlantis-like under millions of gallons of water, a final service took place at Holy Trinity.

The then Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd. Llewelyn Hughes, spoke about a place of Christian worship for a thousand years, soon to be in its own watery grave.

One person, who attended the service, said afterwards:

“Seeing the vacant churchyard with its open graves and tombs was an eerie experience, while the Dean’s oratory, delivered in the flickering light of hundreds of candles, was powerful, atmospheric and something I will never forget.”

It’s more than 55 years since the deceased men, women and children of West End were relocated to their new place of rest, high on the moors above the reservoir.

During the past two years, Norman Wheat and fellow Thruscross parish councillors, with support from parishioners at St Saviour’s Thornthwaite, have transformed the cemetery.

The Rev. Alastair Ferneley, who will conduct the rededication service

At 3pm on July 4, the lives of all those buried there, will be celebrated.

The service will be conducted by The Revd. Alastair Ferneley, Vicar of Dacre with Hartwith and Darley with Thornthwaite, who said:

“People may not be aware, due to its remote but lovely location, that the cemetery on Greenhow Hill Road, has, thanks to the hard work of Norman and others, been improved in the last couple of years.

“This has involved the laying of paths, and the planting of wildflowers and trees, making maintenance much more manageable and the cemetery much more attractive.

“Following the reburials of the dead from West End in the 1960s, other local people have been buried in the cemetery and there is space for centuries to come.

“All are welcome to attend, including local people, considering being laid to rest here, when the time comes.

“Others may simply want to peruse the memorials for a bit of local history, look for the grave of a relative, or enjoy the birdsong and moorland views.”

The rededication service will be followed by refreshments and a quiz/treasure hunt.

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Ripon’s Spa Hotel has been sold for an undisclosed sum to The Inn Collection Group.

The 40-bedroom Edwardian hotel was on the market for a guide price of £1.5 million.

It has been sold on behalf of long-standing owners the Hutchinson family by Colliers International.

The property agents brought the hotel to the commercial market for the first time since it was opened in 1906.

Julian Troup, head of UK hotels agency at Colliers, said:

“This sale marks a new chapter in the history of the Ripon Spa Hotel, and I look forward to seeing this renowned Yorkshire hotel benefitting from the high-quality of refurbishment for which The Inn Collection Group is synonymous.”

The hotel will be refurbished by the new owners

He added:

“There has been a noticeable change of mood in recent months among potential hotel purchasers.

“Activity has significantly increased, and the Ripon Spa Hotel attracted a good deal of interest from a diverse range of buyers before being secured by The Inn Collection Group.”

Located on Park Street in landscaped grounds of 5.75 acres and including croquet lawns, the three-star hotel was built complete with its own ballroom to accommodate high society in the early 1900s when Ripon Spa was operating in the cathedral city.

It continued to trade successfully long after Ripon Spa closed in 1947, although the hotel’s Turkish baths were eventually converted into The Turf, a popular public bar and bistro with horse-racing décor to complement the hotel’s more formal dining room.

The purchase of the Ripon Spa Hotel by The Inn Collection Group increases to 24 the portfolio of the Alchemy-backed hospitality company, which is based in Northumberland.

Sean Donkin, managing director of The Inn Collection Group, said:

“We are delighted to be welcoming the Ripon Spa Hotel into our portfolio.

“Its picturesque location in such a popular part of the UK makes it the perfect fit for The Inn Collection Group. and our offering.

“We’re excited to be furthering our expansion plans with such a great site, and are proud to be continuing to thrive during these challenging times for the hospitality sector.”

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The reopening of the hotel will come as a relief to operators of tourist attractions, as well as Ripon City Council, which was concerned that the property might be sold for redevelopment involving other uses.

Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) has confirmed that Ripon’s new swimming pool and refurbished leisure centre will open in November.

Last month, it was revealed that a new sinkhole had been discovered in 2020 near the leisure centre entrance.

This follows an incident in February 2018, when a sinkhole opened up on the centre’s car park.

However, the council says that investigation of the second void, and any remedial work required, will not cause further delay to the £10 million-plus project.

Following a report from consultant engineers, councillors approved additional spending of £110,000 to pay for the investigation.

The current insured value of the leisure centre is £3,796,135 plus 10% contents, which the authority would lose, should any damage be caused as a result of the work on site.

Read more:

• Final costs for Ripon leisure development ‘not yet known’
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Once complete, the facility will include a six-lane, 25-metre pool, modern changing rooms, a sauna, an extended gym and an outside play area.

A spokesperson for HBC said:

“Thanks to this investment at Ripon Leisure Centre, the existing facility at Ripon Spa Baths will no longer be required.

“The sale, and redevelopment of the spa baths, will give this local listed building a new lease of life (subject to planning approval), retain key features and remain as a city landmark.”

The new pool offers a 70 per cent increase in water space compared with Ripon Spa Baths.

The improved leisure centre will also provide a new main entrance and lobby area, two new activity studios, a spin studio and meeting facilities.

Cllr Stanley Lumley, HBC’s cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, added:

“The addition of the new swimming pool, and the improvements to the leisure centre, will be a major development for Ripon and the surrounding area.

“They’ll provide much needed modern facilities that will encourage a healthier and more active lifestyle for our residents and something they can be proud of.”

While construction activity continues, HBC has confirmed that Ripon’s Spa Baths, which is still up for sale, will remain open.

The spa building, with its pool that was added in the 1930s, reopened on May 14 after closing in March 2020 due to covid.

For sale signs remain in place outside the building.

Brimham Rocks can be seen in a different light at an exhibition starting on Monday.

Innovative Yorkshire landscape photographer and artist Joe Cornish has captured the ancient rock formations at different times of day and seasons of the year.

His images reveal the rugged landscape from a point of view that few people see.

Mr Cornish’s photographs and images captured in other mediums, will be on display at the Brimham Rocks visitors’ centre from June 21 until November 30.

The iconic moorland was formed by a huge river that covered the area 100 million years before dinosaurs made their first footprints on the earth.

The Drawn to Rock exhibition is part of the National Trust’s celebration of 50 years of ownership of a site that has been attracting visitors since the 18th century.

Joe Cornish’s photographic exhibition will be on display until November

Mr Cornish said:

“The photographs and mixed media pieces for this exhibition were created through numerous visits to Brimham in many conditions, and subsequent ruminations on the nature of geological time.

“Inspired by what lies above the surface, the intention is to reflect on what lies beneath it, something that finds its equivalent in the human condition.

“Although landscape photography remains the primary form of expression, by using words and paint as well, I hope to question the hard boundaries that exist between different media, as well as exploring the interplay of material and energy inherent in sedimentary geology.”

Brimham Rocks in winter – one of the images in the exhibition

Most people visit Brimham during the day, so Mr Cornish wanted to capture the rocks at night – a time when few people see them and the surrounding countryside.

Through his nocturnal images, Brimham takes on a very different but powerful guise, as he plays with light and shadows.

Some of Mr Cornish’s daylight images contrast the wide-ranging views of the rock formations many know so well, with extreme close-ups of the rock structures within the same image.

Although known primarily as a photographer, he hasn’t always worked in this medium, originally beginning his career working in fine art.

Through his work on this project, Mr Cornish included an experimental aspect to his craft, combining photographs with added elements of paint and text.

Justin Scully, general manager of Brimham Rocks said:

“We’re delighted to be working with Joe, especially since we had to postpone the exhibition because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“His work captures the power of landscape at Brimham but also helps us look at it in a new light at a time when, as well the growing appreciation of nature, we are also more than ever aware of the threat to nature from climate change.”

Ownership of Ripon’s famous Spa Hotel looks set to change hands.

Colliers International, which has been marketing the 40-bed property since spring, reports it is currently ‘under offer’.

While confirmation of the sale to an unknown buyer is awaited, it remains unclear whether the building will remain as a hotel or be redeveloped for another use.

The Stray Ferret approached Colliers for clarification, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

The 16,125 sq ft Edwardian hotel was on the market for £1.5 million.

The hotel and its surrounding grounds.

Read more:

• What we reported on Ripon’s Spa Hotel in February
• Will Grantley Hall’s helipad plans be grounded again?

The Spa Hotel has been closed since March last year, when the first covid lockdown came into effect.

In July 2020, the long-term owners of the hotel, announced permanent closure after failing to attract an asking price of £1.75 million.

At the reduced price of £1.5 million, it  was marketed by Colliers for continued use as a hotel.

The agents’ executive summary of the property said:

“This is an outstanding opportunity to acquire a renowned Yorkshire hotel in a desirable trading location.”

The summary added that the hotel, with its range of public rooms, has enjoyed ‘strong regular repeat custom based on its standing in the Ripon area’.

A former Ripon Grammar School student is to run 48 marathons in 48 days to raise £48,000 for children in food poverty.

John Clark’s own family struggled to survive on benefits, after his father suffered life-changing injuries in a work accident.

The 34-year-old will attempt to run the 48 marathons in a different county every day for a grand total of 1,248 miles.

John Clark from his school days at Ripon Grammar.

Former international strongman Mr Clark set up the charity Miles4Meals to help families facing the same issues that he did as a child.

He explained why he is attempting the extreme feat of endurance:

“I grew up in a household with a disabled father and a mother who was his full-time carer.

“We lived in food poverty, reliant on government support to make ends meet.”

His life changed when his father Alan, a roofer, broke his back and shattered his foot in a fall after scaffolding collapsed.

Mr Clark said:

“I understand the difficulties families face and the hard choices that need to be made with minimal budgets available for basic living expenses.

“I hope to make a difference, so others don’t have to experience the same as I did.”

The coronavirus pandemic has increased problems faced by families across the UK with an estimated 8.4 million people living in food poverty.

Mr Clark, who left Ripon Grammar in 2003, owns and operates a chain of gyms.

He is appealing for volunteers and supporters to help him along the way in their local county, starting in Northumberland on July 5. reaching North Yorkshire on July 16 and eventually finishing in Worcestershire on August 21.

After leaving Ripon Grammar, Mr Clark studied sports and exercise science at university and took up strongman competitions after breaking his neck in a scrum collapse, which left him unable to play rugby.

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• How Olympic Gold hero Jack Laugher has stayed loyal to his Ripon roots
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Now living in Worcester, he was crowned Britain’s Natural Strongest Man in 2015 and 2016, and when further injury curtailed his strongman career, the former Malvern Rugby Union player took up triathlon.

The Miles4Meals charity, which he set up in May, also works with the Trussell Trust, which campaigns to end hunger and destitution by supporting more than 1,200 food banks in the UK.

For more information visit: www.miles4meals.co.uk/484848. You can follow Mr Clark’s journey on Instagram www.instagram.com/_john.clark