Today’s early May bank holiday has seen a buzz of activity on Ripon Market Square as the Little Bird Artisan Market returned.

About 40 independent businesses are selling homemade local products and handmade goods, including clothing, jewellery, hand-crafted wooden items and food.

It is the first public event to be staged by Ripon City Council for 18 months.

Jackie Crozier, owner and curator of Little Bird Artisan Markets, said:

“The Ripon artisan market celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of the local traders, inviting visitors and residents to discover artisanal crafts from up-and-coming local businesses and further afield

“As someone who was born and lives in Ripon, I am very proud to hold events in the city I am passionate about.”

Artisan markets are planned throughout the rest of the year, along with activities on key dates in the city calendar.

Stalls were spaced out across all of Market Square to ensure that social distancing could be maintained.

Ripon also awaits the return of the of the ancient hornblower ceremony to Market Square.

Its return and the staging of larger-scale events is reliant upon the removal of government social distancing requirements.

Currently, the earliest this can happen is 21 June.

The covid lockdown wiped out all public and civic events planned by the council in 2020.

They included the 75th anniversary celebrations for VE Day, Saint Wilfrid’s procession, Remembrance Sunday, switch on of the Christmas lights and the New Year’s Eve entertainment

Andrew Williams, council leader and chair of the city council’s events committee, told the Stray Ferret:

“It’s great to be able to hold events for local people once more.

“As lockdown restrictions ease we aim to hold larger-scale activities that can be enjoyed by both residents and visitors.

“This will attract more footfall that is beneficial to shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs and our heritage attractions.

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.

Does Marilyn not know about climate change?

Does Marilyn Stowe really not understand? The growth in cycling provision in Leeds or Harrogate is not to provide for the few people that already cycle.

The intention is to persuade a lot more people to cycle. Does she not know about climate change and melting polar ice?

Her article on Stray Ferret is just so incredible.

Andrew Willoughby, Knaresborough

Why prioritise cyclists when Harrogate needs parking?

I wrote to North Yorkshire County Council twice last year about the experiences of towns that have installed harmful, counter-productive cycling lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods.

I wrote that the planners of those towns might be forgiven for not anticipating how damaging the reality of their schemes was going to be – because there were no precedents. Our councils here have no such excuse, not with the evidence from other towns writ large since 2017.

Throughout five different journeys by car, in and out of town, Monday to Friday last week, I counted 12 cyclists — in mild and sunny weather. We really don’t have many homegrown cyclists – for good reason.

The hills on Harrogate’s town-centre access routes, together with wet and windy weather, discourage cycling for local residents. Dedicated cycling lanes will never change that.

It is different for hobby cyclists. They are mostly the ones to be seen on high days and holidays, often grouped on the roads, identifiable by their distinctive apparel and indifferent to bad weather. They are rarely spotted using our shops and cafes or services.

Are we really going to make changes that prioritise cyclists over our entire population, when our town is in dire need of footfall, residents and visitors to shop and pile goods into their cars, or to drive into town to enjoy cafes and restaurants again? Surely we should be welcoming all comers and that means providing plentiful parking if we are to support the prestigious services and the famous retail heart of Harrogate.

On account of working-from-home there are already fewer cars coming into town, and perhaps fewer cyclists – a trend that may progress. Changes are coming and I think we should wait and see.

Jacky Little, Harrogate

Ripon people have chips on both shoulders

The attitudes expressed by both Harrogate borough councillors Swift and McHardy are insulting to the Scottish Nationalist Party, which exists to promote and advance the people of Scotland, and have nothing at all to do with Harrogate or Ripon.

Councillor McHardy’s response is quite typical of the constant whinging from people in Ripon, which is completely unwilling to accept that in 1974 Ripon was absorbed into the Harrogate district. We fail to see any similar grouses from other towns in the district, such as Knaresborough, Boroughbridge or Pateley Bridge, who seem prepared to work with Harrogate Borough Council to get the best deal for their locality.

Ripon seems to live in the past and many Ripon city councillors, who incidentally are often Harrogate borough councillors and North Yorkshire county councillors too, seem to regularly be elected on the basis of their anti-Harrogate Borough Council attitudes.

It’s often said that Ripon people are well-balanced because they have a chip on both shoulders.

John Edmonstone, Ripon

Read more: 

• Marilyn Stowe: They’ve made a dog’s breakfast of cycle lanes in Leeds
• Ripon grievances ‘like listening to the SNP’, says councillor

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

The author Lady Antonia Fraser will discuss her latest book’s Ripon connections in this year’s Markenfield Hall lecture series.

The hall, near Ripon, has held lectures since 2013 to raise funds for restoration work.

Past speakers include the writers Phillippa Gregory, Diane Atkinson, Julian Fellowes, Leanda de Lisle and Anne de Courcy.

Lady Antonia, who headlines this year’s series, will talk about her book The Case of the Married Woman, which is due out next month.

The book portrays the Victorian women’s rights activist Caroline Norton, whose descendant Lord Grantley owns Markenfield Hall.

Lord Grantley and Lady Antonia will talk about Norton’s life, as well as how the Markenfield archives were used as a source for the book.

The lecture will take place online on May 12.

Read more:

• Council hopes to reopen Ripon and Starbeck Baths next month
• Tribute to Ripon’s deputy mayor for 20 years’ service to the city

Until last year, lectures were held in the drawing room at Markenfield Hall, which can seat about 50 people.

This year’s planned online events also feature the author Alexander McCall Smith, the writer A N Wilson and the Guardian journalist Madeleine Bunting.

Lord Grantley’s mother, Lady Deirdre, lives at the hall with her husband Ian Curteis, the former TV director.

The programme for 2021 is available here.

A retired woman from Harrogate has spent lockdown writing her first novel, Murder After the Matinee, which is now available in stores and online.

Lorna Snowden set the murder mystery in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Ashdale, which is loosely based on Ripon.

The book’s protagonist is Lydia Buckley, a divorcee who moves to the village and becomes the prompt for the Ashdale Players’ production of Aladdin. Shady business dealings, infidelity and a shocking killing ensue.

READ MORE:

• Theakston’s Crime Writing Festival returns to Harrogate in July
• Winner of the Harrogate International Festivals’ crime writing competition announced

Ms Snowden began the novel during the first lockdown and decided to retire so she could spend more of her time writing.

She said:

“The plot had been in my mind for quite a while but when lockdown started I just wrote and wrote. I wrote the entire book in two months.

“My daughter read it after I’d finished and said, ‘have you really written this?’.”

She was recommended to her publisher, Troubador, after an editor enjoyed the novel. She intends to spend the rest of her retirement writing a series to follow on from the first book.

Ms Snowden crafted the plot using her own love of pantomime and experience with the Pannal Players troupe.

Her previous experience of owning a bridal shop will influence her second instalment, Murder Before the Wedding, which she is midway through writing.

Murder After the Matinee is available online from Waterstones and WHSmith and is currently free on Kindle Unlimited.

Do you believe in ghosts? Have a lively sense of humour? Can be a bit spooky?  If the answer is yes to these questions then the Ripon Ghost Walking Team want to hear from you.

The group is looking for new volunteers to take the unafraid on evening tours of the city.

The tours cost £3 per person, are held on the last Thursday of the month and all proceeds are donated to Ripon Museums.

Having stopped due to covid, the tours are to resume this month but a few members have retired so the team is looking for new recruits.

Read More: 

• Ripon Spa Baths set to re-open later this month
• Ripon Cathedral awarded £126,000 for re-opening

Richard Pratt from the Ripon Ghost Walk Team said:

“We’re looking for someone who is out-going, can talk to people and judge their audience well. The ability to be spooky would be a bonus and you need a good sense of humour.”

The tour starts in the Market Square and takes visitors to the cathedral grounds to hear the story of a keen fisherman who drowned and is seen wandering around the area he is buried. It also encompasses the Workhouse Museum, which Mr Pratt said “was one of the most haunted places in England”  given its grim history.

The thoroughly spooked group ends back at Market Square in time to hear the Hornblower at 9pm.

The next tour starts on May 20 at 7.15pm. For more information on the Ripon Ghost Walks and how to apply to be a volunteer visit the Ripon Museums website.

The faint hearted need not apply.

Did you know? 

The Stray Ferret and the Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) have worked with historian Malcolm Neesam to produce two fantastic audio tours of Harrogate.  Both last about an hour and are easy to do. The first will take you back to the golden age of Harrogate’s Victorian Spa days, the second will take you through the heart of the shopping district, stopping to learn about historic buildings as you go. To take a look click here. 

Harrogate Borough Council has confirmed that Ripon Spa Baths will reopen to the public on May 14.

The council posted on its Twitter account that the pool would be open for lane swimming and family sessions two weeks today.

It said the sessions must be pre-booked and can only be 45 minutes long.

Earlier this month, Councillor Stanley Lumley, cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, had said he hoped to open Ripon Spa Baths and Starbeck Baths in May.

Neither pool reopened on April 12, when covid regulations allowed. The council said this was due to staff shortages and difficulties around social distancing.

Its other pools, including the Harrogate Hydro and Nidderdale Pool, reopened this month. Knaresborough Pool remains closed for urgent repairs.

Ripon city councillors had campaigned for Ripon Spa Baths to be saved after ‘for sale’ boards went up in March and questions were raised over the future of Starbeck Baths when it remained closed.

Cllr Lumley has previously said Starbeck’s pool would be opened “very soon after” Ripon Spa Baths, but the council is yet to confirm a date.

Read more:

• Harrogate Borough Council publishes heavily redacted responses to Turkish Baths consultation
• Stray Views – one of our readers urges the council not to sell Ripon Spa Baths 

Are you a train enthusiast wanting to get your career on track? Newby Hall is advertising for a new full-time driver for its miniature railway.

The stately home and gardens between Ripon and Boroughbridge is looking for a full-time driver and engineer to run its narrow-gauge railway.

The railway has 1.2km of track taking nearly 50,000 passengers each year through the estate’s gardens.

Newby Hall said in a statement the successful applicant needs to be enthusiastic about trains and engineering and have relevant experience. They will have to drive along the steam, battery and gas-powered track and be in charge of train, track and station maintenance.

If your childhood dream was to be a train driver then operations director, Stuart Gill, says this is the ideal job for you:

“This is a chance to perhaps turn your hobby or childhood dream into a career, particularly if you feel your job aspirations have been shunted into the sidings.

“We need someone who has a real passion for trains and engineering, preferably with previous relevant experience, and they also need to be great at managing our team of amazing railway volunteers.”

The successful applicant will also be responsible for the interactive Tarantella water fountain in the children’s play area.

To find out more about the job, click here.

Read more:

• “Quirky” Starbeck mural could see famous faces floating on teabags
• Meet Coco: Harrogate’s tea-drinking parrot

Ripon Cathedral has been awarded £126,000 from the second round of the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The grant will help the cathedral re-open its doors when lockdown restrictions are eased on May 17.

It will also help provide new information to visitors and market the cathedral to fresh audiences.

The grant is being distributed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the public body Historic England.

The Dean of Ripon, the Very Rev John Dobson DL said:

“Ripon Cathedral exists to serve the people of the region and visitors from across the country and beyond. We pride ourselves in welcoming people of all faith and no faith, as well as those who come as Christian worshipers and pilgrims.

“These much-needed funds will enable us to open our doors wide for all, as the country emerges from lockdown.”

Visitor numbers at the cathedral are still limited due to covid restrictions. However, it has been streaming some services on its YouTube channel.

Read more: 

• Ripon Cathedral leads district’s prayers for Prince Philip

• Love, Lent and Songs of Praise from Ripon Cathedral

The owner of Newby Hall received £208,300 from the heritage fund and The Parochial Church Council Of The Ecclesiastical Parish Of St Peter High Harrogate received £39,800.

Four other cultural organisations in the district also received funding from the government fund through Arts Council England.

These were:

• Harrogate Theatre: £91,078
• Harrogate International Festivals: £80,000
• Ripon Museum Trust: £69,350
• Cause UK: £35,000

Nearly £400 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country in the second round of funding from the £1.57 billion fund.

Ripon Little Bird Artisan Market will return on Monday.

The May Bank Holiday event will be the first staged by Ripon City Council for 18 months.

The covid lockdown put paid to all public and civic events planned by the council in 2020.

They included the 75th anniversary celebrations for VE Day, Saint Wilfrid’s procession and Remembrance Sunday.

Andrew Williams, council leader and chair of the city council’s events committee, said:

“For the first time in 18 months Ripon City Council is once again able to provide an event for local people to enjoy.

“I hope that as lockdown restrictions ease we will be able to return to the larger scale events that we have hosted so successfully in recent years.

“We have ambitious plans for the summer onwards and will provide further details on our plans as soon as we are able to do so.”

The time has come for Ripon City Council to stage its first event since the covid lockdown

The market will have more than 40 artisans selling homemade local products.

It will be open from 10am to 3pm and social distancing measures will be in place.

As well as providing a platform for the artisans to display and sell their goods, the council hopes it will attract footfall to benefit businesses in the city.

Items on sale will include clothing, jewellery, hand-crafted wood items and food.

Read More:

• When will Ripon’s hornblowers be heard again on Market Square?
• Row over Ripon Market continues

Jackie Crozier, owner and curator of Little Bird Artisan Markets, said:

“The Ripon artisan market celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of the local traders, inviting visitors and residents to discover artisanal crafts from up-and-coming local businesses and further afield

“As someone who was born and lives in Ripon, I am very proud to hold events in the city I am passionate about.”

For more information on the artisan market or to become involved as an artist, artisan or vendor, email info@littlebirdmade.co.uk.

Ripon’s nightly hornblower ceremony has been performed behind closed doors since March last year.

So the return of the city’s three hornblowers, who share the task, is keenly anticipated. But it seems the trio won’t be seen again on Market Square for almost two months at the earliest.

Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams told the Stray Ferret:

“It is not possible to make concrete plans until we have certainty over the total lifting of limits on social distancing.”

Stage four of the government roadmap out of lockdown says the removal of all limitations on social contact will take place no earlier than 21 June.

The obelisk and Market Square, where the nightly hornblower ceremony has taken place for centuries.

Cllr Williams said:

“The council has received numerous enquiries about when the hornblowers will be seen again at the obelisk.

“Naturally, we hope that there are no mishaps along the way to the lifting of restrictions.

“We are as keen as our residents, businesses and visitors to the city, to see and hear them on Market Square.

“We will keep people informed.”

The 9pm ceremony has been performed continuously, without fail, since Ripon was granted its first charter in 886 by the Saxon king Alfred the Great.

During lockdown, the hornblowers have ‘set the watch’ by blowing the horn at their own homes.

People have been able to watch this on Facebook.

Hornblowers Wayne Cobbett, Alison Clark and Richard Midgley are employed by the city council.

They perform the ritual on a rota basis.

In pre-covid times, this involves them making blasts of the horn at the four corners of the obelisk and a brief talk on the history of Ripon.

The event can attract large gatherings, particularly in summer months. 

Each hornblower has their own instrument from a collection of five, which still includes the ancient horn said to have been given to the city by King Alfred.

It’s a prized and priceless item, only on display at civic occasions. 

“Over the centuries, Ripon has had to fight off many threats from war to plague.

“The sounding of the horn and setting of the watch reminds us that we can and will overcome adversity – as we have done for centuries.”