A 500-year-old misericord in Ripon Cathedral depicting a fox has been restored.

The choir of the cathedral has a set of 32 misericords created by master carver William Bromflet in the 1490s.

The misericords, which are small seats, gave clergy the opportunity to rest from standing during worship.

The fox is thought to have lost its nose and arms at some point during the last 100 years.

The restoration by Henning Shulz is the final part of a wider conservation project of the medieval choir stalls.

A post on the cathedral’s social media said:

“We are delighted to see the return of this freshly restored misericord (mercy seat for perching on during long services), which depicts a fox preaching from the pulpit to an assembled congregation of birds – his prey.

“This was a common motif in the middle ages, warning against travelling preachers who would lead their flock astray for their own gains.

“At some point this fox lost his arms and then, sometime in the last century, his nose. We know this from a 100 year old photograph which shows the fox ‘armless’ but with his nose.

“These seats are 500 years old and in daily use – remarkable survivals from our medieval past.”

Read more:

• The Lark Ascending to provide soaring return for Ripon orchestra
• New shop and bar openings in Ripon centre today

A charity wellbeing and fitness event is being held in the grounds of Ripon Cathedral today to bring the community together after the pandemic and raise funds for the city’s YMCA branch.

Participants will be able to take part in yoga, meditation, dance fitness and Clubbercise, which will be led by local personal trainers and fitness instructors, who have given up their time for free, as well as enjoy head massages from Head to Toe Healing.

Read more:

• Ripon Curzon cinema to reopen this month with James Bond film
• Ripon Arts Hub re-opens with first performances

Wellbeing Day for the YMCA will take place in the Dean’s Garden from 2-4pm and currently has more than 40 people signed up.

Louise Jones, who owns Oliver’s Pantry, on North Street, and is one of the organisers, said:

“We are holding it to raise funds and awareness, our objective was to have some fun and bring people together and to also help some of our local yoga and PT instructors promote what they do.

“Also from a mental health and wellbeing aspect, these activities really do help so many people locally. So it’s about feeling great, having some fun, coming together and simply seeing people together – knowing after lockdown many have struggled with coming back out in to normality.”

Four 30-minute sessions will be provided by:

Nicola Lymer – yoga (Exhale Fitness)

Frayah Humphries – Essential Yoga with Frayah

Hayley Anderson Fitness – Clubbercise

Edina – dance fitness (M-Unity)

To book a place email events@riponymca.org The suggested donation is £20 and participants should bring a mat, blanket or towel, and a drink.

Ripon’s Old Deanery Hotel is to reopen with a focus on wedding receptions and events.

The historic property, which neighbours and is owned by Ripon Cathedral, closed in March after months of lockdown due to covid.

Now it is being prepared for reopening by new occupiers Layton Hill Hotels Ltd, which operates the Galtres Lodge Hotel close to York Minster in the city’s Low Petergate.

The company was formed in May 2018 by Christopher Layton and Rebecca Hill.

In a social media post announcing their plans for the iconic Grade II listed building, Ms Hill said:

“We’re going to run it as wedding/events venue.

“It has 11 bedrooms, a huge lawn and loads of public rooms – restaurant, function rooms, reception rooms etc.

“Seems we like cathedral cities and the Old Deanery is opposite the beautiful Ripon Cathedral.”

Having obtained the keys for the property, the two Layton Hill directors are organising a deep clean in readiness for an opening date that will be announced later.

Refurbishment work in progress at the Spa Hotel

Across Ripon, refurbishment work has begun at the Spa Hotel, which was purchased in June by The Inn Collection Group.

Headquartered in Northumberland, the group now owns four sites in Yorkshire in a portfolio of 24 locations across the north of England.

The company says that the Spa Hotel:

“Will remain closed while a major but sympathetic refurbishment is carried out to enhance and repurpose the venue and bring it in line with The Inn Collection Group’s award-winning ‘Eat, Drink, Sleep and Explore’ brand.”

Read more:

• Civic society display focuses on Ripon’s Spa Quarter
• What’s coming soon to Ripon’s high street?
• The Old Deanery in Ripon goes back on the market

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

“The Ripon Spa is a fantastic addition to our portfolio of properties. It has huge potential which we have an exciting vision to realise. We’re looking forward to starting that journey while expanding the group’s footprint in Yorkshire.

“The Inn Collection Group excels at revitalising classic, landmark sites like The Ripon Spa and realising their full potential with significant capital spend, detailed planning and care to retain the unique, historic character of landmark sites such as this.”

In a third boost to the city’s economy, café-bar-restaurant operator The Loungers Group has confirmed that its Claro Lounge, currently being fitted out on Market Square South, will open on September 15.

Ripon Cathedral’s crypt, which is the oldest surviving building in any English cathedral, reopened to the public today.

The Anglo-Saxon crypt, which is the highlight of many people’s visits to the cathedral, was built by St Wilfrid as part of the stone church he erected in the 670s. It is believed to be a copy of the tomb in which Jesus’ body was laid after crucifixion.

The crypt has been closed to the public since March last year due to covid but is now open to visitors between services from 9.30am until 5pm.

Next year will mark 1,350 years since the construction of the crypt in 672.

Joe Priestley, marketing officer at the cathedral, told the Stray Ferret some clergy had occasionally used the crypt for private prayer and services during the last 17 months but its small confines were not compatible with social distancing requirements. He added:

“People do find it to be a very moving space.”

Read more:

• Join the pilgrims walking from Ripon Cathedral to Fountains Abbey
• Ripon A-Level student who battled tumour aims to become a doctor

The not-for-profit group Ripon Together has organised a mass walk called the Yorkshire Pilgrimage from the the city’s cathedral to Fountains Abbey next month.

Like the Boxing Day pilgrimage between the iconic religious sites, which has been staged for 45 years, walkers will trace the steps of the 13 Benedictine monks who, in 1132 AD, were the original founders of the abbey.

The pilgrimage, which takes place on 4 September, is part of Walkshire series of walks organised this year by the tourism organisation Welcome to Yorkshire, which encourages people to discover the county’s great outdoors.

It is also part of  Ripon Together’s Healthy Journeying campaign to encourage people to walk in the Yorkshire countryside, following the lifting of covid restrictions.

The Ripon Together Yorkshire Pilgrimage will depart from the cathedral at 12.30pm on September 4.

The walk will be led by Canon Barry Pyke, of the cathedral, and will take approximately an hour at a leisurely pace.

The Dean of Ripon, the Very Reverend John Dobson, said:

“Ripon Together has been promoting walking and cycling for a couple of years now.  This is a fantastic opportunity for the people of Ripon and across the region to walk together from the oldest cathedral in the country to Fountains Abbey, one of Yorkshire’s World Heritage Sites.

“Ripon Together is devoted to improving the wellbeing of people in Ripon and the area. I am delighted that people are uniting to encourage healthy journeying and urge people from across the area to join us in the pilgrimage.”  Further walks and cycle routes can be found at https://www.ripontogether.com/healthy-journeying/.”

Book in advance

Justin Scully, general manager at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal said:

“The past 18 months have been tumultuous to say the least, so we’re delighted that the long-running tradition of a pilgrimage between Ripon Cathedral and Fountains Abbey is taking place in September.

“We know that the pilgrimage, which normally takes place on Boxing Day, is much loved by our community and we were so disappointed that we couldn’t run the event in 2020.”

The Yorkshire Pilgrimage is free to take part in, but to ensure a safe journey Ripon Together needs to know the numbers attending in advance.

Tickets for the event are available through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pilgrimage-from-ripon-cathedral-to-fountains-abbey-tickets-158397195275.

For those who cannot access that link, paper numbered tickets are available from Ripon Cathedral and Fountains Abbey visitor centre.

There are three food outlets at Fountains Abbey.  Cakes and liquid refreshments will also be available on the Abbey Green.

Read more:

• Classic art meets contemporary at Fountains Abbey
• Ripon Together organises a summer of free play for children

Music will be provided at the abbey by Ripon City Band, which is one of the country’s leading brass bands.

They will perform two sessions, including Yorkshire pieces, finishing at about 3.30pm.

The covid pandemic has put paid to official celebrations in honour of Ripon’s patron saint, but St Wilfrid will still be represented on the city’s streets on Saturday.

The tradition, which goes back decades, is being kept alive in the hope that things will be back to normal next year.

Sue Simms, secretary of the St Wilfrid’s procession committee, said:

“Our unofficial St Wilfrid walk is going ahead.”

Actors playing the parts of the patron saint, his monks and followers, will leave from the Spa Gardens gates at 2pm.

The walkers will head for Market Place, North Road, Princess Road, Allhallowgate, Kirkgate, Bondgate, Harrogate Road and finish back at Market Place.

The gate at Spa Gardens, where St Wilfrid walkers will gather at 2pm on Saturday before their tour of the city.

Until 2019, St Wilfrid’s Day was one of the city’s biggest occasions of the year, marked by events and a large procession.

Thousands of people would, pre-pandemic, line the city streets and congregate on Market Square.

In addition to causing the cancellation of the 2020 event, the covid lockdowns also affected this year’s activities.

Organisers are looking to use Saturday’s walk as a platform to promote festivities for next year and beyond and will be handing out leaflets along the route.

As well as being the 1,350th anniversary of St Wilfrid founding a church on the site of Ripon Cathedral, 2022 marks the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

In May, Ms Simms told the Stray Ferret:

“We did not feel running a large-scale procession this year would be a responsible choice.

“The situation was complicated by the fact that we would have needed to start applying for road closures back in October.

“Because of the coronavirus crisis, we couldn’t plan ahead with any degree of confidence at that time.”

Ripon City Council is staging Yorkshire Day Weekend activities on Market Square.

Read more:

• Fundraising campaign for Ripon’s Walled Garden
• Another councillor has concerns about Ripon Leisure Centre

These will include free children’s fairground rides, musical entertainment from 5.45pm on Saturday and a fireworks display.

On Sunday, there will also be an artisan Market starting at 10am on the square.

Ripon’s famous hornblower ceremony has taken on a new international angle.

When the 9pm ritual returned to Market Square for the first time in 16 months on Monday, Patricio Maglio was unveiled as a new member of the team.

Mr Maglio, who was born and bred in Argentina, told the Stray Ferret:

“When I saw there was a vacancy, I just had to apply.

“It’s an absolute honour to be part of this rich Ripon tradition, which is part of the history of this fantastic city.”

The Mayor of Ripon, Councillor Eamon Parkin, with the city’s hornblowers – from the left: Alison Clark, Richard Midgley, Wayne Cobbett and Patricio Maglio

Mr Maglio, who moved to the UK 13 years ago, works in the corporate team at Asda’s Leeds headquarters.

He and Ripon-born partner Rebecca live within earshot of the nightly blasts of horns that will now signal the nightly setting of the watch on the city’s ancient Market Square.

Covid social distancing requirements and lockdowns meant that the hornblowers had to perform behind closed doors for more than a year.

But, working on a rota basis, they did not miss a single night and maintained a tradition dating back to 886 AD.

The four hornblowers brought the 9pm ritual back to Market Square on Monday

After the newly-enlarged team played their part in the ceremony, they shared details of the history of hornblowing and their respective instruments, with a crowd of appreciative onlookers.

Read more:

• Halls of Ripon a hit with shoppers
• Olympics just days away for Ripon’s star diver

This included the Mayor of Ripon, Councillor Eamon Parkin, who said:

“We’ve now got a fab four and it’s great to have the hornblowers back and able to perform in public.

“As well as being a part of Ripon’s heritage, they play an important role in attracting visitors to the city.

“For citizens and visitors alike, the setting of the watch each night, should make us all feel a little safer.”

A new-look independent high street venture opens in a familiar Ripon setting at 9am tomorrow.

Halls of Ripon is in the Fishergate building that formerly housed the Philip Hall and Wrens department stores.

The coronavirus crisis signalled the end for some retailers in towns and city centres, but four former Wrens tenants kept their dream for independents alive.

Linda Liversidge at her Legs & Co stall, where she sells classic and vintage fashion for women and men

Mike and Liz Cooper, Hedley Hall and Lloyd Sheard devised a plan while selling their respective goods from a temporary location in Queen Street.

Tomorrow, their dream becomes reality.

Mr Cooper told the Stray Ferret:

“We are home to 22 small retailers – 15 of which are coming to open in high-street premises for the first time.

“The demand for space has been phenomenal and we have attracted a great mix of businesses, selling items ranging from hand-made gifts and home furnishings, to womenswear and jewellery.”

Keeley Buller and her partner David Ward will be selling cakes, beverages and other refreshments at The Hive coffee shop within Halls of Ripon

He added:

“Our aim is to take independent retailing in the city into a new era, while creating a department store experience with a level of service that is attractive to customers.

“Each retailer has  their own facilities for debit and credit card transactions.”

Traders who also want sell online can call on Ben Butler, who is running his e-commerce sales and marketing business at Halls of Ripon.

Goods on sale include famous-name model vintage cars

Mr Hall’s antiques, collectables and vintage model business was in the former Wrens department store from the day it opened.

He said:

“Mark Butler’s highly innovative and award-winning concept sadly suffered because of the covid lockdowns at key trading periods last summer and pre-Christmas.

“We have taken his ideas forward and, by continuing to provide affordable space with no strings attached, have created a platform designed to help small businesses to succeed.”

A broad spectrum of retailers have joined the department store

Because of its long history, heritage and natural attractions, Ripon in non-covid times has benefited from year-round trade brought by tourists and the local population.

Read more:

• See which Ripon regular predicted England’s winning score
• Curtains up for Ripon Amateur Operatic Society

Mr Sheard pointed out:

“There has always been the demand for a department store of this nature in Ripon.

“It is attractive to traders like myself, because it is in a fantastic location for footfall.”

Councillors have expressed concern that plans to erect a sculptural montage of ancient buildings of Rome on a Ripon bypass roundabout could cause traffic accidents.

The five-metre high cast resin sculpture, with information plaque and lighting, is planned to celebrate Ripon Cathedral’s 1,350th anniversary.

But there are concerns it may distract motorists and cause accidents.

The cathedral plans to commission five major art works over a four-year period.

The proposed location for a boat sculpture depicting St Wilfrid’s sea travels.

Three of the works require approval from Harrogate Borough Council and a planning application has been submitted.

Under the theme of From Rome to Ripon, they will tell the story of the city’s patron saint and cathedral founder St Wilfrid.

The concept is supported by Ripon City Council, but at a meeting on Monday evening, they agreed to seek a meeting with the cathedral’s project team to discuss concerns.

City council leader Andrew Williams said:

“In principal, I fully support the artwork proposal, but I feel that we need to look again at the sculpture proposed for the roundabout.

“The bypass is a very busy road and I am concerned that the artwork with lights on could be a distraction to road users and lead to accidents.

“I also question how sensible it would be to have an information plaque on the sculpture – we wouldn’t want pedestrians to walk on to the roundabout to read it.

“Surely there must be a better location than this for the artwork.”

Fellow councillors agreed there was a need for further discussion with the applicant.

The council will write to Harrogate planners calling for the application to be deferred until this aspect of the plan is resolved.

The other two sculptures requiring planning permission are, firstly, of a boat containing figures that represent St Wilfrid on his sea travels. He made several visits to and from Rome during his time in Ripon.

This would be the first of the installations in June of next year.

The second installation, cast in bronze and standing five metres high, would depict St Wilfrid and a follower, which is planned for the corner of the Market Square that looks down onto Kirkgate.

Read more:

• More calls for urgent repair of Ripon roads
• Evening hold-ups on Ripon bypass

It is proposed that this will be in place by June 2024.

The artwork currently earmarked for the Ripon bypass roundabout would initially be installed from June 2025 in the narthex at the the western end of the cathedral, before being relocated.

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.