With three linked heritage attractions that bring thousands of visitors a year to Ripon, the city’s museum trust is looking to the future by building on a picture of the past that has increasing relevance to today’s society.
Having celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, Ripon Museum Trust (RMT) continues to develop its activities through community engagement and a volunteer programme that enables the museums to create a living history experience.
With almost £100,000 of Heritage Lottery money, RMT is assembling the team of professionals required to draw up a bid, seeking further funding that would enable it to open up parts of the Workhouse Museum, never before seen by visitors.
RMT director Helen Thornton told the Stray Ferret:
“If we are successful, we will be able to provide access to the women’s and men’s dormitory areas on the upper floors of the east and west wings of the master’s accommodation.
“Our plan also includes installation of a lift, that would increase accessibility for people in wheelchairs and families with young children.”
She added:
“We are keen to tell the full story of the lives of previous inmates, which has particular relevance to today and the financial difficulties that are faced by many.”
Echoes from the past
The current cost of living crisis, which is putting more families and individuals into poverty and reliance on charities, has echoes that go back to 1776, when the original Ripon Union Workhouse opened in Allhallowgate, prior to construction of the Victorian establishment on the site with its 1854 dateline set in stone.
The former hospital wing within the complex is home to Community House, a social enterprise which, among other vital services, provides food support through a foodbank to an ever-growing number of users.
Side by side, the buildings in the workhouse grounds exemplify the fact that history can and does repeat itself.
Some 246 years ago it opened its doors to men, women and children caught in the poverty trap and here in 2022, many families are facing the modern-day equivalent, through crippling debt, much of it caused by increasing gas and electricity charges.
RMT chair Richard Taylor at the Prison & Police Museum
A unique offer
Ripon Museum Trust has a unique offering, by virtue of the fact that the Workhouse is the most complete museum of its kind in the UK and the only one whose entire exhibit is dedicated to focusing on the lives and experiences of the destitute and downtrodden of former generations.
Through a trail that also takes in the Prison & Police and Courthouse museums, visitors can follow the journey from poorhouse to punishment cell as seen through the eyes of those whose impoverishment put their lives into a desperate downward spiral.
Richard Taylor, who has chaired the trust for 28 years, said:
“It’s a powerful story put into context through items that can be seen at the three museums.
“In liaison with the community and our volunteers, we have developed an exhibition, which runs until November 27, called Ripon Museums in 40 Objects.
“It has been designed to provide an insight into the hard times faced by former citizens unfortunate enough to find themselves in any of these establishments.”
These children were able to find out what it was like to face a magistrate before the courthouse became a museum
The blue lamp outside the Prison & Police Museum is one object not included in the list, but has special relevance to Mr Taylor.
He said:
“The P&P as we call it, was the first museum operated by the trust and I was delighted when my suggestion of adding the lamp was taken up many years ago.
“It has acted as a kind of guiding light directing visitors to the building ever since.
“We are currently looking for people to join our board of trustees and would like to hear from anybody who feels they can play a part in helping the trust to plan for its next 40 years.”
The phrase ‘I care about where I live’ is a guiding principle for Ripon Civic Society (RCS) as it looks to the future of a growing city.
The organisation that aims to protect and enhance Ripon’s heritage assets for the benefit of all, is currently formulating its views on the new £6 million plans for the cathedral, the city’s most important and iconic building.
Society chair Christopher Hughes, told the Stray Ferret:
“We have, of course, been looking closely at the proposals and will have our response in due course and hope that residents and visitors will look at the plans and make their views known as well.”
While the ancient building is the city’s dominant feature, RCS, now in its 54th year, is encouraging citizens to play a role in shaping the Ripon of the future.
Speaking at the Civic Day 2022 awareness and recruitment event on Market Square on Saturday morning, Mr Hughes, said:
“We start with the simple proposition of ‘I care about where I live’ and look at what this means in helping to make the city an even better place.
“By the 2030s, Ripon is likely to grow by a quarter and we need to ask questions such as ‘what do we value of the city’s past?’ and ‘what is at risk?’
“That leads on to keeping a watch over vulnerable buildings and threatened trees and how we can enhance the green, blue and natural environment.”
Mr Hughes, added:
“We are not here to say ‘no’ to development, but to encourage those who are investing in Ripon, from retail to residential, to aim for the best possible design, with use of materials sympathetic to the city’s built and natural environment.”
RCS played a key role in setting up the Ripon Museum Trust 40 years ago, establishing an organisation that has developed the Workhouse, Prison & Police and Courthouse museums as linked heritage attractions, that bring the city’s history to life.
While protecting and promoting heritage, the society also had an eye to the future when it supported the construction in the 1990s of the city bypass, which helped in the development of the Dallamires Lane employment zone, where many businesses are based.
RCS has a healthy membership of 150, but welcomes new members and those who want to attend events as non-members. Further details are available at info@riponcivicsociety.org.uk.
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New £6m plans to extend Ripon Cathedral facilities proposed
Plans for a £6million extension to the south side of Ripon Cathedral’s west-facing frontage are on hold and alternative proposals have been put on public display.
The Ripon Cathedral Renewed Project, which aims to provide 21st century facilities for the cathedral’s parishioners, choristers, the wider community and an ever-increasing number of visitors, already has £4 million in pledges.
But it needs to secure a further £2 million if ambitions are to be achieved.
Signs at the exhibition, being held in the north transept, explain that the alternative plan has been brought forward after reservations were expressed about the previously proposed extension
The new plan, captured in this artist’s impression, involves creating new indoor and outdoor space.
Proposals involve a standalone two-storey development to the north of the iconic building on an area of land that also houses the Old Courthouse Museum and the Royal British Legion Garden of Remembrance.
Proposal to close Minster Road to through traffic
They also include the suggested closure of Minster Road to through traffic, to provide a safe link for pedestrians and people in wheelchairs or families with prams and buggies, to move between the cathedral and the new building.
The proposal includes the provision of pedestrian-friendly links between the cathedral and the new building and into the Cathedral Car Park.
The community consultation aims to gauge views on the design of the new building, landscaping of the site and the Minster Road proposal.
Approval required at every level
A message from the Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd. John Dobson, thanks donors who have already pledged support to the Ripon Renewed Project and adds that the bid to make the vision a reality is ‘nearer than ever before.’
He points out that in addition to obtaining further financial pledges:
“We need plans that will attract approval at every level.”
The wooden model on display shows the new two-storey building to the right and its relationship to the cathedral.
The new building would incorporate indoor toilets, including a Changing Places toilet for disabled people, a café/refreshment area, improved shop, meeting room, new facilities for the choir school and additional storage capacity to take the pressure off use of space in the cathedral.
A national treasure
When the Ripon Renewed project that was announced Dean John, said:
“It is clear that the development of the cathedral is vital to bring this national treasure into the 21st century.
“As custodians of this fantastic building we are only too aware of the legacy we uphold. We have this ancient history, this wonderful architecture – what we haven’t got are the facilities that people need.
“Each generation has, over 13 centuries, taken on what has been handed to it and made its own contributions. We take none of this for granted and we have a responsibility, in our generation, to make our contribution now.”
The site for the proposed new building, is to the right of the Old Courthouse Museum and adjacent to the Royal British Legion Garden of Remembrance
Serving future communities
He added:
“Over the last few years it has become increasingly obvious to a growing number of people that the development of Ripon Cathedral is vital as we seek to serve the communities of the region now and in the future.”
The community consultation will help to shape a formal planning application that will be submitted to Harrogate Borough Council and people who go to view the plans, are asked by Dean John to fill out a short questionnaire available at the exhibition.
If successful, plans would see the first major development in hundreds of years of the cathedral’s facilities, for a building containing the oldest built fabric of any English cathedral – St Wilfrid’s Crypt – dating back to 672 AD.
Ripon residents are being given the opportunity to play a part in an innovative community project being created for the city’s first theatre festival.
At the Workhouse Museum on Allhallowgate between 11am-1.30pm today, would-be actors, scriptwriters, set designers and props handlers are invited to find out more.
The aim is to recruit people who would like to have a role in Jubilee at the Workhouse — a living history project by Fell Foss Theatre Company, under the direction of Mark Cronfield.
Participants will develop scripts with the museum’s volunteer research group alongside local writers and specialist script writer Simon Kirk of Time will Tell theatre company, long-time collaborators with English Heritage.
The finished production will reflect on previous royal celebrations in Ripon, such as Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, which was marked a year later, when the clock tower at the junction of Palace Road, North Street and Princess Road, was officially opened in front of a huge crowd.
Performances will take place on the final afternoon of the festival (Sunday June 26) when a promenade of colourful characters, will interact with the audience, as they make their way through the museum’s historic spaces.
The theatrical venture is being made possible through a collaboration between Ripon City Festival Trust and Ripon Museum Trust.
Festival co-director Katie Scott, said:
“This is our inaugural year and we are so pleased that we have been able to include this project in our plans.
“The festival aims to celebrate the unique city of Ripon through live performance and our ambition has always been to programme original and site-specific work alongside visiting companies. This is a creative and thought-provoking way to begin”.
Dr Laura Allan, community curator at Ripon Museum Trust, added:
“The historic spaces of the Workhouse Museum will be transformed into a stage with volunteers and the local community at the centre of the story. We are asking the local community to give it a go and get involved with this special jubilee performance”.
The festival runs from June 23 to 26, with a wide variety of performances from street theatre and puppetry to dance, storytelling and open-air Shakespeare
Tickets go on sale next month.
Historic images projected onto Ripon Workhouse Museum at night
Pictures of local people from the past are lighting up the front of Ripon’s Workhouse Museum with a new after-dark display.
People of Ripon’s Past, features historic photographs from the Ripon Re-Viewed collection including, among others, North Eastern Railway staff, workers from Ostcliffe’s Tannery, land girls and a refugee family.
Running until March 21, the daily display can be seen between 6pm and midnight.
The Images are projected onto the museum with a design created by locally-based audio-visual and lighting specialists Fusion LX
Helen Thornton, director of Ripon Museum Trust said:
“We had some fantastic feedback from the community on our previous lighting displays and we wanted to continue into 2022.
“After talking with Ripon Re-Viewed, we came up with the idea to display some brilliant historic photos of Ripon in days gone by, as a way to bring the community together through our shared past.
“Hopefully, the display will intrigue and inspire anyone passing by the museum on Allhallowgate.”
Read more:
Mandy Whitehead, project lead at Ripon Civic Society said:
“A big thank you to the Workhouse Museum for the opportunity to share some of the fabulous images from Ripon’s past. We hope it will give the local community an insight into life in Ripon.”
Prize-winning vegetables and cakes to be sold in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens
Visitors to Harrogate’s Valley Gardens on Sunday will be able to view and buy produce grown in allotments across the Harrogate district.
The Harrogate and District Allotment Federation is holding its 60th annual allotment show in the Sun Pavilion from 11am until 4pm.
Stalls displaying produce will also be open on the nearby Sun Colonnade. Entrance to all areas is free.
Harrogate district mayor Trevor Chapman will formally open what will be the federation’s 60th show at noon.
The federation, which brings together members of 16 allotment sites in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough, was due to celebrate its diamond jubilee show last year until covid forced its cancellation.
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Vegetables, plants and cakes will be judged and sold and any outstanding items donated to Resurrected Bites, the Harrogate and Knaresborough community organisation that gives food that would have been thrown out to the needy.
The event will also include a miniature bug hotel, a raffle and stalls by Harrogate Civic Society and The Woodland Trust as well as craft and coffee stalls. Musicians will play in the bandstand between 2pm and 3.30pm.
Profits from this year’s event will be donated to Ripon Museum Trust, which owns the Workhouse Museum, Prison and Police Museum and Courthouse Museum in Ripon.
Ripon museums launch summer programme of activitiesA summer programme of exhibitions and activities has been launched by Ripon’s museums.
The Workhouse Museum on Allhallowgate is one of three heritage attractions operated by Ripon Museum Trust.
On Saturday August 14, from 11am to 2pm, it will be the venue for Hazel Waite’s counted threads workshop.
Using motifs from features of the workhouse building, participants will be able to create a stitched sample, which could be used as a small picture, bookmark or greetings card.
For more details see the Ripon Museums website.
The Lives Unravelled exhibition is on display at the Workhouse Museum until Sunday 5 September.
Featuring five textile installations, located throughout the museum, the exhibition was inspired by the lives of women who lived and worked in Ripon’s former union workhouse.
Based on their research into the workhouse, textiles group 6-Ply has created crafted and unique textile pieces, which reflect the real experiences and imagined emotions of impoverished women.
Children will be able to explore the newly-created den in the Workhouse Museum garden
Over the school summer holidays, family-focused activities will be staged from Tuesday to Friday each week.
On Friday and from August 10 to 13, the theme is Make Your Mark.
Visitors can join in with the creation of a giant wall hanging depicting feelings and life during lockdown, as well as following a museum trail.
This includes the opportunity to bake in the Workhouse Museum’s Victorian kitchen and have a go at Rag Rugging.
During the second half of the school holidays, the theme for activities will be garden camp.
From August 17 to 20, 24 to 27 & 30 and September 1 to 3 , visitors can explore the Workhouse Museum garden and make and decorate a recycled plant pot holder to take home.
The trust will also be offering a museum trail, plus bird and bird call identification activities and a bird search game.
Children will also be able to play in a new garden den, with family activities included in the cost of museum entry.
Read more:
- Ripon’s weekend of free family entertainment
- What free activities are available for Ripon’s children this summer?
During the summer, the Prison and Police Museum is offering a creative walk through the criminal justice system with the My Path exhibition.
It showcases artworks from across Yorkshire, which were submitted to the 2020 Koestler Awards for arts in the criminal justice system.
Every work shown was made by someone in a prison, secure hospital, young offender institution or on probation. The exhibition runs until September 26.
Entrance to the exhibition is included in the cost of museum entry.
Shakespeare with a difference is coming to RiponRipon’s Workhouse Museum Garden will be the setting for The Merry Wives of Windsor.
The Three Inch Fools, will give their musically-driven take on Shakespeare’s raucous comedy.
The touring troupe of five actors, will perform on the evening of Friday 25 June.
The performance will be staged in the Ripon Workhouse Museum Garden
Known for their fast-paced approach to Shakespeare’s works, The Three Inch Fools are a touring company.
They have built a reputation for staging productions, using many different instruments.
This is combined with rapid costume changes.
Collaborating with composer Stephen Hyde, for each production, they create a completely original musical soundtrack.
Following the easing of the covid lockdown the touring company has a summer traveling the length and breadth of the UK
They are in their seventh year of touring, having so far performed at more than 150 venues to almost 60,000 people.
Organisers suggest that audience members come prepared with blankets, cushions and camping-chairs.
The Workhouse, Prison & Police and Old Courthouse museums reopened to visitors on 17 May.
Ripon Museum Trust, which maintains the heritage attractions, received two grants totalling £186,850 from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
The funding is designed to help cultural organisations to get back on their feet following the coronavirus crisis.
A grant of £69,350, announced in April, will help the trust to develop digital learning for schools and reconnect with tour groups, older learners and communities.
Bookings can be made via riponmuseums.co.uk or by telephone on 01765 690799.
Ripon museum volunteers involved in major workhouse exhibitionRipon Museum Trust has been involved in a major new online exhibition presented by The Workhouse Network called ‘More Than Oliver Twist.’
Volunteers from the Workhouse Museum in Allhallowgate – one of three heritage attractions operated in the city by the trust – worked on the project presented on the Google Arts & Culture platform.
The exhibition sets out to discover the real stories of people in the workhouse system through the 1881 census returns.
Researched and interpreted by volunteer researchers at six sites across The Workhouse Network, the stories have been used to create an online exhibition, with work from artists Morgan Tipping and Mel Rye, exploring six of these lives and the contemporary echoes of their historic experiences.
The immersive exhibition combines audio narrative and visualisations, enabling audiences to encounter the multidimensional lives of people then known as ‘paupers.’ The work is drawn directly from the research, museum collections, workhouse buildings, volunteers’ experiences and related contemporary lives.
Ripon’s Workhouse Museum
Within the exhibition, audiences will find The Life of Hannah Wade, a creative interpretation of the life of an inmate at Ripon Union Workhouse, now Ripon Workhouse Museum and Garden.
Helen Thornton, director of Ripon Museum Trust, which also runs the Police & Prison Museum and Old Courthouse museums, said:
“We’re delighted to see the results of this project, which our volunteers worked incredibly hard on. The content that has been created is remarkable: moving, thought-provoking and central to what we are trying to do here – to use the past to consider more deeply the issues of today.”
Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association says:
“This fantastic project brings the stories of people who lived and worked in workhouses alive. I was fascinated by the story of Louisa Ledger and her struggle, that many women past and present have faced, to raise her children against the odds.
“The contemporary reflections help us explore the lives of invisible people who would otherwise be forgotten and have special resonance as we live through a pandemic that is hitting those worst off in society hardest.”
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The project has also created the largest database of poor individuals and families yet constructed to shed light on the diverse experience of the poor.
More than 325 biographies of these everyday people who experienced hardship and support under the very first system of national welfare have been created – the largest national database of biographies of people known at the time as “paupers”.
The project is funded by Arts Council England and supported by Nottingham Trent University and The National Archive.