Ripon Cathedral Yorkshire
Ripon Cathedral is one of the oldest and most historically significant churches in England, a cathedral of great architectural variety and interest whose origins in a monastic community founded by St Wilfrid in the seventh century make it one of the earliest sites of Christian continuity in the north of England. The crypt beneath the current cathedral, built by Wilfrid around 672 and used as a pilgrimage destination associated with the saint's relics, is one of the oldest complete Anglo-Saxon structures surviving in Britain and an extraordinary link to the earliest history of English Christianity. The cathedral's architectural development spans over thirteen centuries, from the Saxon crypt through the Norman west front and nave to the Early English Gothic choir, the Decorated crossing tower and the Victorian restorations that gave the building much of its current appearance. This layering of architectural history, unusual even among English cathedrals, reflects the continuous importance of Ripon as a religious site and the sustained investment in building that importance generated across the centuries. The city of Ripon itself is one of the most attractive small cities in Yorkshire, its cathedral the dominant feature of a compact city centre with a fine market square, medieval street pattern and the notable addition of the Ripon Workhouse Museum and the Prison and Police Museum in the surviving courthouse building, the latter providing an excellent account of the development of Victorian criminal justice and penal reform. The three museums together create an unusually comprehensive picture of Georgian and Victorian English institutional and social history. The blowing of the Wakeman's Horn in the market place at nine o'clock every evening, a tradition maintained continuously since the medieval period as a practical public service, is a living connection to the town's medieval governance that has survived through all the changes of the intervening centuries.