Will the crucial role of Ripon’s Royal Engineers in the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy be lost in the sands of time?
As the 80th anniversary of this key event in world history fast approaches and features in media coverage across the globe, Ripon Military Heritage Trust is facing a battle with the bulldozers on the home front.
The Ripon barracks site, which is due to be vacated by 21 Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers in two years to make way for the 1,300-home Clotherholme development, is a time capsule that helps to tell the story of world war and cold war invention, ingenuity and innovation.
The area uniquely links priceless relics of the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 conflicts that are of major historical importance.
Heritage assets currently located there include extremely rare accommodation huts built in 1939, along with bridges and structures, such as a concrete weir constructed on the River Laver to turn the turbines of a power station serving a huge World War One army camp.
The battle cry of Ripon Military Heritage Trust can be seen in a banner hanging high above High Skellgate
In the wake of the Japanese aerial bombardment of the USA fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the Americans came to Ripon to learn from the Royal Engineers how to deal with unexploded ordnance.
It was a Trans-Atlantic training arrangement and helping-hand from across the sea, that emphasised the growing ‘special relationship’ between the two countries.
Ripon was also the base where allied military personnel from the USA, Canada and Europe, were trained in the methods of installing Bailey Bridges.
Ripon’s role recognised by top military figures
The importance of this then revolutionary, new bridging system was highlighted in a letter to the Royal Engineers from Field-Marshal Montgomery who wrote:
Planning update
Last week, the government agencies Homes England and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation provided an update on the Clotherholme proposals in a planning report published on North Yorkshire Council’s website.
The report pledged to “work with the Ripon Military Heritage Trust on a heritage strategy which will balance the urgent need for new homes for local people with a strategy for preserving and recording the unique history and heritage of the barracks”.
The trust’s continuing concerns
But the trust, which has launched a website as part of a campaign to preserve key aspects of the site, believes the agencies have shown little desire to co-operate since Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission in February last year and their pledges remain vague and opaque.
Trust chairman Guy Wilson said:
“We are hugely disappointed that after 15 months of engagement with Homes England, the current outline planning application lacks any provision for the preservation of even a single example of the rare and unique huts at Deverell Barracks.
“Neither has any land been allocated to allow for the relocation and re-use of these heritage assets. Both were specific requests that the Harrogate Borough Council planning committee called for in February 2023.
“It has sadly become apparent that none of the parties to this development has any real interest in preserving the heritage of the site and none has made any attempt to work constructively with us. All they are interested in is appearing to do enough to get their present plans passed without alteration, in which case the result will be that significant heritage assets will be lost and this we very much regret.”
The planning update said the housing scheme will preserve the main military roads and names as well as provide information signs
Trust display
Trustees Michael and Jane Furse of Ripon Military Heritage Trust, showed Major Daryl Murphy, the second-in-command of Ripon’s Royal Engineers the newly-created display.
Trustee Michael Furse told the Stray Ferret:
“The city has a rich and deep military history and has enjoyed a long and close relationship with the Royal Engineers.
“We and many Ripon residents strongly believe that the important heritage assets at the barracks site are worth fighting for.”
Main image: Field-Marshal Montgomery recognised the important role that Ripon’s Royal Engineers played in the installation of Bailey Bridges, such as this one in Italy. Picture Wikipedia
Read more:
- The countdown is on for Ripon’s D-Day anniversary event
- Rallying call from Ripon Military Heritage Trust
Lt Col. Perry Bishop, the commanding officer of the Ripon-based 21 Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers, admitted to having an emotional moment when he saw knitted soldiers adorning the bollards in Ripon city centre.
He told a large crowd of civic dignitaries, volunteers, schoolchildren and members of the public, who gattered this morning on the lawns of Ripon Inn for the launch of the city’s D-Day 80th anniversary commemoration and celebration events:
“In my 20 years of army service, I’ve never known a town or city whose people have such a close affinity with the corps of soldiers who are based here.”
Lt. Col Bishop, who is coming to the end of his two-and-a-half year posting in Ripon in the next month, added:
“I must admit, that when I saw the knitted figures of sappers on the bollards around the Market Square, I had tears of pride in my eyes and I could not have a better send off than being here today to unveil this incredible tank made of wool and wood.
“It’s a manifestation of the respect that the people of Ripon have for the Royal Engineers and in return the respect that we have for the citizens of this wonderful city.”
The Mayor and Mayoress of Ripon, Councillor Sid Hawke and his wife Linda, along with the Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd John Dobson, were among those present for this morning’s launch
Today’s unveiling of the replica Churchill bunker buster tank signalled the start of D-Day anniversary events in the city
The badge of the Royal Engineers has been faithfully reproduced in wool by the knitters of Ripon Community Project
Community link
For a community proudly wrapped in rich military history, where the Royal Engineers have enjoyed Freedom of the City for 75 years, the countdown to the 80th anniversary, which marks the D-Day landings on five Normandy beaches, have a very special meaning.
On June 6 1944, one in four servicemen involved in Operation Overlord — the code name for the huge military operation that paved the way to the liberation of western Europe — were Royal Engineers, many of whom were trained in Ripon in readiness for their key role in clearing the way for troops who followed on behind them,
Among the weapons at their disposal was the Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) tank which was used with terrifying effect to blast enemy bunkers with huge and uncompromising shells
The life-size replica, which is 24 feet long, nine feet wide and seven feet high, has been created through a collaboration between Ripon Community Poppy Project and the city’s Men’s Shed who worked together in a hangar provided by the Engineers at Claro Barracks.
The tank, is a striking and symbolic centrepiece that will be seen at selected locations around the city between now and June 6, when an anniversary concert will be held at Ripon Cathedral, before Jack Churchill the great-grandson of war-time leader Sir Winston Churchill lights a beacon on the cathedral’s piazza,
Five of the people involved in creating the replica tank are pictured here, from the left: Carol Dunkley, Hazel Barker, Stuart Martin (Ripon Community Poppy Project) and Richard Thomson and Gordon Woods of Ripon Men’s Shed,
Hazel Barker, who was joint-founder of the poppy project with former mayor of Ripon Stuart Martin, told the Stray Ferret,
“We hope that the tank and D–Day anniversary decorations, which have taken tens of thousands of stitches from our tireless team of non-stop knitters, will remind local residents and visitors of the crucial part that the Royal Engineers played in securing allied victory in World War Two.”
Pictured above are some of the knitted servicemen that brought tears to the eyes of Lt Col Bishop, while a silhouette of a lone soldier can be seen below with other displays in Spa Gardens.
The D-Day heroes are remembered in this display (below) on railings in Ripon city centre
Main image: Lt Col Perry Bishop (pictured left) with Hazel Barker and Stuart Martin of Ripon Community Poppy Project
Read more:
- New Clotherholme plans heighten fears for Ripon’s military heritage
- Why 3,000 tonnes of grout has been pumped into a Ripon void