Ripon Cathedral

I was visiting the lovely city of Leeds to meet a friend who was walking from Liverpool to Leeds along the canal. I went up a day earlier to photograph Ripon's magnificent cathedral. A short trip on the train to Harrogate and then a surprisingly luxurious trip to Ripon on a double-decker bus equipped with leather seats, USB charging ports and WiFi.

Ripon is a city, the third smallest in England, with a population of around 17,000 and is the smallest city in Yorkshire; it became a city in 1865. In addition to the cathedral, people visit Ripon to go horse racing and to visit Studley Royal Park and Fountains Abbey. I didn’t have the time to do any of those, but I look forward to doing so in the future.

Unusually for England, Ripon was not a Roman settlement. The earliest records for it date to the 7th century when it was called Inhrypum. The first Christian church dedicated to St Peter was built in 658. In 672, St Wilfrid built the first stone church on the site. Ripon grew slowly, but by the 12th century, it was a major wool trading centre and later a major location for the cloth industry. During the 16th century, the manufacture of spurs replaced the clothing industry.

The Industrial Revolution largely past Ripon by, and it remained a market town. During both the first and second world wars, Ripon was a major training camp. Since the Second World War, Ripon has become a tourist destination.

Ripon Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid as we know it today, was largely built between the 13th and 16th centuries and is the fourth church built on the site. In 672, St Wilfrid brought stonemasons, plasterers and glaziers from France and Italy to build a stone church, one of the first in England.

This church was destroyed in 948 by King Eadred, with only the crypt surviving. The rebuilt church was destroyed in 1069 by William the Conqueror. The rebuilding started with Thomas of Bayeux, the first Norman Archbishop of York.

The Early English west front was added in 1220, its twin towers originally crowned with wooden spires and lead. The east window was built as part of a reconstruction of the choir between 1286-8 and 1330, and was described by architecture critic Pevsner as a 'splendid' example of the series of large Decorated gothic windows constructed in Northern England. Major rebuilding had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses but resumed after the accession of Henry VII and the restoration of peace in 1485. The crossing tower was rebuilt after it collapsed in an earthquake in 1450 but was never completed. Between 1501 and 1522 the nave walls were raised higher and the aisles added. The church's thirty-four misericords were carved between 1489 and 1494. The same (Ripon) school of carvers also carved the misericords at Beverley Minster and Manchester Cathedral. But in 1547, before this work was finished, Edward VI dissolved Ripon's college of canons. All revenues were appropriated by the Crown and the tower never received its last perpendicular arches. It was not until 1604 that James I issued his Charter of Restoration.

During the civil war, much of the stained glass was smashed, and some statues were destroyed.

The minster finally became a cathedral (the church where the Bishop has his cathedra or throne) in 1836, the focal point of the newly created Anglican Diocese of Ripon – the first to be established since the Reformation. In 2014 the Diocese was incorporated into the new Diocese of Leeds, and the church became one of three co-equal cathedrals of the Bishop of Leeds.

Here are some photos of this frequently rebuilt beautiful cathedral.