Ripon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Ripon (disambiguation).
Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of theRiver Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature theRipon Cathedral which is architecturally significant, as well as the Ripon Racecourseand other features such as its market. The city itself is just over 1,300 years old. It is one of only two cities in North Yorkshire, the other being York.
The city was originally known as Inhrypum and was founded by Saint Wilfrid during the time of Angle kingdom Northumbria, a period during which it enjoyed prominence in terms of religious importance in Great Britain. After a period of Viking control, it passed to the Cerdic dynasty who unified England and then the Normans who destroyed much of the city. After a period of building projects under the Plantagenets, the city emerged with a prominent wool and cloth industry. Ripon became well known for its production ofspurs during the 16th and 17th century, but would later remain largely unaffected by theIndustrial Revolution.
Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ripon is the fourth smallest city in England. According to the 2001 United Kingdom Census it had a population of 15,922.[1]It is located 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Thirsk, 16 miles (26 km) south ofNorthallerton and 12 miles (19 km) north of Harrogate. As well as its racecourse and cathedral, Ripon is a tourist destination due to its close proximinity to the UNESCOWorld Heritage Site the Studley Royal Park and Fountains Abbey. It also contains the theme park Lightwater Valley.
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[edit]History
See also: History of Yorkshire
[edit]Northumbrian and Viking period
Artistic depiction and arms of Ripon's founder saint Wilfrid
During its pre-history, the area which later became Ripon was under the control ofBrythonic tribe the Brigantes, three miles (5 km) north of Ripon at Hutton Moor there is a large circular earthwork created by them.[2] The Romans did not settle Ripon either, but they had a military outpost around five miles (8 km) away at North Stainley.[2] Solid evidence for the origins of Ripon can be traced back to the time of the Anglian kingdom Northumbria in the 7th century.[2] The first structure built in the area, which at the time was known as Inhrypum, was a Christian church dedicated to St. Peter, with the settlement originating in the year658.[2] This was founded by a man who later became the Bishop of York, a Northumbrian nobleman known as Wilfrid; he was granted the land by king Alhfrith.[2] Wilfrid religiously directed the Angle kingdoms of the north from Insular Christianity calculations of Easter, toCatholic Church standards; he was later venerated as a saint.[2]
The earliest settlers were stonemasons, glaziers and plasterers that Wilfrid had brought over to help construct the Ripon monastery, from Lyon in Francia and Rome which was then underByzantine rule.[3][4] The years just following on from the death of Wilfrid are obscure in Ripon's history. After the invasion of the so-calledGreat Heathen Army of Norse vikings in Northumbria Danelaw was inserted, and the Kingdom of Jórvík was founded in the Yorkshirearea.[2] When King of England at the time Athelstan came to Northumbria to try to force out the Danelaw, he was said to have granted privileges to Ripon, Beverley and York.[2] One of his successors was less favourable; after the Northumbrians rebelled against English rule in 948, king Edred had the buildings at Ripon burned.[2] Prosperity was restored by the end of the 10th century as the body of saintCuthbert was moved to Ripon for a while, due to the threat of Danish raids.[2]
[edit]Normans and the Middle Ages
After the Norman conquest of England, much of the north rebelled in 1069, even trying to bring back Danish rule; the suppression that followed was the Harrying of the North.[2] Ripon is thought to have shrunk to a small community around the church after it, after 1/3 of theNorth of England had been killed.[2] The lands of the church were transferred to St. Peter's Church at York as the Liberty of Ripon and it was during this time that the Ripon Cathedralwas built on top of the ruins of Wilfrid's building. Eventually developing in the Gothic architecture style, the project owed much to the work of Roger de Pont L'Evêque and Walter de Gray, two Archbishop of York during the Plantagenet period of rule.[2] During the 12th century Ripon built upon a booming wool trade, attracting Italian trade merchants, especiallyFlorentines who bought large quantities.[2]
Ripon's proximity to Fountains Abbey where the Cistercians had a long tradition of sheep farming and had vast grazing land for the animals, was of a considerable advantage.[2] After English people were forbidden from wearing foreign cloth in 1326, Ripon also developed a cloth industry; after York and Halifax, Ripon was the chief Yorkshire producer of cloth.[2]Due to conflict with Scotland political emphasis was on the North during the time of Edward I and Edward II, as Scottish invaders attacked numerous northern English towns.[2] Ripon had a wakeman to make sure the residents were safely home by curfew and law and order was retained, yet Ripon was forced to pay 1,000 marks[disambiguation needed] to the Scots to prevent them from burning down the town on one occasion.[2]
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