by Jennifer Cornish

Created on: December 12, 2009   Last Updated: December 14, 2009

Located just five minutes walk from the market square area of Ripon town centre, the cathedral is very easy to reach. There is also a car park a couple of minutes walk from the cathedral.

Ripon Cathedral is unusual in that, in common with only one other Cathedral in the UK, it also functions as a Parish Church.

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A LITTLE HISTORY
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The Cathedral building itself began in the 7th century when St Wilfrid built one of England's first stone churches on the site.  St Wilfrid was educated at Lindisfarne and then travelled to Rome in 652. On his return, he became abbot of a Benedictine monastery and built a church in Ripon. The crypt of the church is the oldest existing Saxon crypt in England, and forms part of the Cathedral you see today, resting beneath Archbishop Roger de Pont l'Evêque's 12th century minster. Today's church is in fact the fourth to have stood on this site.

The remainder of St Wilfrid's church was destroyed by the English King in AD948.
A second minster was built at Ripon, but it too perished - this time in 1069 at the hands of William the Conqueror. Thomas of Bayeux, first Norman Archbishop of York, then instigated the construction of a third church, but building had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the War of the Roses.

In 1547, before all the 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.

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 Diocese of Ripon - the first to be established since the Reformation.

Ripon has been place of pilgrimage for St Wilfrid for hundreds of years and remains so today.

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VISITING THE CATHEDRAL
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From the outside the cathedral is quite breathtaking, in particular the West Front. It is possible to drive right past it on the road outside, but standing across the road on the tree-lined pathway leading to the cathedral entrance, it appears very quiet, standing majestically over Ripon centre.

Entrance to the cathedral is free, although you are invited to make a donation towards the upkeep of the building. Several collection boxes are placed inside. The cathedral receives no state aid other than grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund

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