River Ure : Masham to Ripon
The city of Ripon and town of Masham are situated in a vale through which the River Ure flows beyond the eastern edges of the Yorkshire Dales. Having left Wensleydale and the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey behind, the Ure takes on a more southward course as it heads for Masham.
Masham is a little town famed for brewing that lies west of the River Ure. To its south, the Ure is joined by the little River Burn on the western bank. A couple of miles further south, the Ure twists eastward towards West Tanfield, with the prehistoric Thornborough Henges and villages of Nosterfield and Well to the north.
The Ure then heads south again, passing Sleningford watermill and North Stainley, on the south side of the river. Just south of North Stainley is Lightwater Valley theme park and further east beyond the Ure, towards the motorway are the villages of Wath, Melmerby and Middleton Quernhow.
Continuing south, the Ure passes near the grounds of Norton Conyers Hall and village of Hutton Conyers as it approaches the city of Ripon where it is joined by the River Skell.
Ripon is a small cathedral city and like Masham lies west of the Ure. However, the Skell is the true river of Ripon, passing through its centre and joining the Ure near the city’s outskirts.
In beautiful landscaped grounds slightly south west of Ripon, the valley of the Skell plays host to Fountains Abbey. West of Ripon the Skell itself is joined by the River Laver. This river forms a valley stretching as far west as the Kex Beck near Kirkby Malzeard.
South east of Ripon, after it is joined by the Skell, the Ure continues its journey south east, passing Ripon racecourse and the village of Bishop Monkton near its western and southern bank, with the grounds of Newby Hall across the river to the north and east.
Heading east in the final part of its journey, the Ure passes beneath the A1(M) motorway to Boroughbridge on the south bank. The bridge across the Ure at Boroughbridge was the site of a famous battle and the western edge of the town is home to three prehistoric standing stones called the Devils Arrows.
Also ancient is Aldborough village, just east of Boroughbridge, which stands within the site of the Roman town of Isurium Brigantum, the Roman capital of the Brigantes tribe, of which traces can still be seen.
About two miles south east of Aldborough the River Ure is joined by the River Swale with the village of Lower Dunsforth to the south of the Ure and the village of Myton-on-Swale, on the Swale itself, just to the north.
Three miles south of Lower Dunsforth having passed the village of Aldwark on its east side, the Ure acquires a completely different name. It becomes the River Ouse and bends east, making its way towards Linton-on-Ouse and onward to the outskirts of York. The Ouse is ultimately destined for the River Humber.
Masham and Swinton Park
Masham is situated west of the River Ure, five miles north west of Ripon and is a rather tiny town with an extraordinarily large market square for such a little place.
Surprisingly, Masham’s name is pronounced ‘Mas-am’ without a ‘sh’ sound. The town can trace its origins back to Anglo-Saxon times when it was Maessa’s homestead, so the pronunciation may preserve this legacy.
A market was first granted here in the thirteenth century and its success was partly down to the proximity of Fountains Abbey and Jervaulx Abbey whose monks could trade their extensive agricultural produce. Masham’s first market charter of 1250 was followed by further charters in 1328 and 1393.
Masham also came to be noted for its sheep fairs, again trading in livestock owned by the local monasteries and neighbouring farms. A sheep fair is held in Masham in September and Masham market is still going strong, with market stalls run by local traders.
Masham market is held twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is popular with both locals and tourists, who are an important part of the town’s economy.
The buildings surrounding Masham market place that we see today are mostly of the eighteenth century but the layout goes back to medieval times.
To the north, the market place is joined by Silver Street and to the west of the market place is Church Street. A strange name because Masham’s church is located on the south-eastern side of the market square. Church Street is perhaps named from leading towards an earlier church that stood in the market square’s north eastern corner.
At the south-west corner, the market square is joined by Chapman Lane and on the east side, just north of the church, is Millgate. This leads towards an old mill located in a bend of the River Ure just to the east. The river bend was once cut across by a millrace that powered the mill. On the south side of the market place, another lane heads through an arch near the King’s Head pub to Uredale Glass, a glass-making studio, established in 1981.
Features within the market square include Masham Town Hall of 1912 and the old Grammar School, which dates partly to 1834, as well as the prominent King’s Head pub.
A handful of old buildings form an island near the north side of the market place and are occupied by a tea shop; an insurance broker; sweet shop; pharmacy and a shop selling hand-made items. The northern part of the market place above this island is called ‘Little Market Place’ and includes the Town Hall.
At the heart of the market square is the old medieval market cross that has a base of four steps. Masham Bridge, across the River Ure, to the north of the town dates from 1754.
Masham seems to have been a place of importance within the Kingdom of Northubria. Evidence of the early Anglo-Saxon presence at Masham is indicated by a ninth century Anglo-Saxon cross shaft that stands just outside the church of St Mary.
The cross dates from the eighth or ninth century and although well-worn by weathering over time (it now has a protective cap), you can just about pick out the biblical scenes depicted on its surface. Masham church itself may have its roots in Anglo-Saxon times but the present building is mostly of Norman origin.
An earlier Anglo-Saxon church is thought to have stood in another part of the market place called Cockpit Hill, roughly where the Town Hall building now stands.
Another revelation of Masham’s pre-Conquest origins came in the late 1980s, when fifty-eight Anglo-Scandinavian Christian burials were discovered while pipes were being laid in the market place area. A plaque on the old police station on the north side of the market place records this discovery. The skeletons were reburied at Masham churchyard but it is likely that there are many other burials beneath the buildings bordering the market place.
Such discoveries point to Masham’s early importance which continued into the Norman era when it was the centre of a district of Yorkshire called Mashamshire that perhaps had its roots in pre-Conquest times.
Today the name of Masham is synonymous with brewing. The town is home to two famous breweries, both of which have visitor centres and neighbouring showpiece ‘brewery tap’ pubs.
Masham is perhaps most famously known for the T&R Theakston Brewery. It was established in 1827 by Robert Theakston and John Wood at Masham’s Black Bull Hotel in Silver Street but the Silver Street Black Bull location is no longer a hotel. The successful brewery relocated a little further west to a larger site in the town called Paradise Field. Here we find the present ‘Black Bull in Paradise’ pub situated next to the brewery and its visitor centre.
In the 1890s T&R Theakston began brewing the famous ‘Old Peculier’ a dark fruity-flavoured, ruby-coloured ale that is still one of Theakstons’ most popular brands today. The name of this beer recalls Masham’s former status as an ecclesiastical ‘peculier’.
In medieval times Masham parish was given to York Minster, but the Archbishop of York, found it too distant to regularly travel and effectively administrate. He granted Masham independent status as a ‘peculier’, with its own ecclesiastical court.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the jurisdiction was given by Henry VIII to Trinity College, Cambridge. The old ecclesiastical court came to be known as College House and its setting became College Lane which is quite close to the Theakston brewery site, west of the market place.
Black Sheep Brewery is a more recent brewery, established by Paul Theakston in 1992. As the breakaway ‘black sheep’ of the family, Paul’s independent venture came after the Theakston brewery was taken over by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries. The Theakston Brewery would be bought back by another family member, Robert Theakston in 2003, but in the meantime Blacksheep Brewery became a successful business in its own right.
The Black Sheep Brewery moved into the former Lightfoot Brewery (or Wellgarth Brewery) site on the northern edge of Masham that had been taken over by the Theakston Brewery after the First World War. Here the Blacksheep Brewery’s ‘brewery tap’ pub is called ‘The White Bear’. Blacksheep also have a larger brewery site just off Fearby Road on the western edge of Masham.
About a mile and a half west of Masham is the little village of Fearby with its pale stone houses and broad village green. Its Scandinavian name is thought to mean ‘four farms’.
About a mile south west of Masham is the impressive battlemented stately home of Swinton Park that is now a luxury hotel. Set in a two hundred acre park south of the River Burn, it was built by Sir Abstrupus Danby in 1695 and rebuilt in the 1760s by architect John Carr or York. The Danby family came into possession of the land here in 1517 that had previously belonged to the Scrope family. In 1882, Swinton became the property of the Cunliffe-Lister family.
To the west of Fearby and Swinton Park, hidden in woodland near Leighton Reservoir, we find a remarkable feature hidden in the woodland. It looks like a complete Stonehenge, though it is much smaller than its Wiltshire counterpart. However, though charming, unlike Stonehenge or the impressive Thornborough Henges that lie south east of Masham, this is a folly and a fake.
Built in 1820, the monument of stones was the concept of William Danby of Swinton, who employed local men to construct it during a period when Britain was suffering severe unemployment. He paid the workers a shilling a day for their efforts. Memorials to William Danby and Abstrupus Danby can be seen in Masham church.
Grewelthorpe and West Tanfield
A little under two miles south of Masham the River Ure makes a bend eastwards at a well-wooded section of its valley called Hackfall Forest. Here, overlooking the river bend are the ruins of Mowbray Castle, a mock ruin of 1750.
To the south of the woodland is the village of Grewelthorpe and to its south Kirkby Malzeard. Both are pleasant stone-built villages. Kirkby Malzeard is the home to traces of the real Mowbray Castle, which was first mentioned in 1131 but destroyed by King Henry II after Roger de Mowbray, Lord of Thirsk rebelled along with his sons, Nigel and Robert. The Malzeard of the village name is from an Old French word ‘Mal-assart’, meaning ‘bad clearing. ‘Kirkby’ is of course Viking for ‘church-village’. The ‘gruel’ of Grewelthorpe’s name is thought to be a nickname for a baker or a miller.
A little further along the River Ure, east of Grewelthorpe is the pretty village of Mickley on the south side of the Ure, with its stone-built houses and pantile roofs. Particularly charming is a little chapel on Railer Bank at the eastern end of the village.
Grewelthorpe, Mickley and Kirkby Malzeard were situated in the old West Riding of Yorkshire but Masham was in the North Riding as the River Ure formed the boundary from just north of Hackfall Farm. To the west the old boundary passed through the hills and moors. All of these places are now situated in a modern administrative county called ‘North Yorkshire’ created in 1974 when the old Yorkshire ‘Ridings’ that dated back to Viking times were abolished as administrative entities.
Next we reach the villages of North Stainley and West Tanfield as the River Ure twists slightly north-eastward. North Stainley, to the south of the Ure, was historically in the West Riding while West Tanfield was in the North Riding but again both are now in ‘North Yorkshire’.
The village of West Tanfield, over on the north side of the Ure has long been a crossing point on the river and is a place of great charm. The village has a lovely riverside setting, with local pubs of character and a curious juxtaposition of a castle gatehouse and a church tower that stand side by side.
West Tanfield’s church, which is dedicated to St Nicholas, stands above the River Ure and its oldest feature is a Norman doorway of around 1200 but Anglo-Saxon sculpture found here points to an earlier church on the site. Nearby, leading to the church and tower is a cottage called the Little Chantry.
Next to the church and nearer the river is the fifteenth century Marmion Tower, which was once the old entrance gateway to Tanfield Castle, a defended riverside manor that was home to a knight called Sir John Marmion. The manor house has long gone but the gateway remains and in any case always seems to have been more impressive and castle-like than the manor itself.
Count Alan of Richmond Castle was recorded as an early owner of West Tanfield at the time of the Domesday Book but from the thirteenth century the Marmions were the lords of the manor of West Tanfield. In 1314 the king granted John Marmion the right to convert his manor house into a castle. By the fifteenth century West Tanfield was in the hands of the Fitzhugh family and it was the Barons Fitzhugh who are thought to have built the impressive three storey gatehouse that we see today.
Later owners of the castle included William Parr, the brother of Catherine Parr, (the sixth wife of Henry VIII), who herself resided for a time at Snape Castle to the north.
West Tanfield village is home to pubs called the Bruce Arms and the Bull Inn. The bridge across the Ure here is thought to date from around 1734. In earlier times there had been a ferry crossing.
Just north of West Tanfield in the countryside out towards the village of Well is a farm called North Tanfield while downstream along the Ure east of West Tanfield is the farm of East Tanfield. A riverside field near this farm was the site of East Tanfield village, deserted in medieval times. Further still downstream, as the Ure flows south-eastward, are a collection of nine riverside lakes in an area called Bellflask, near Norton Conyers Hall.
Across the Ure south of East Tanfield Farm we find the village of North Stainley. Stainley means ‘stony clearing’ and the spelling ‘stain’ rather than ‘stan’ points to Norse influence. There is also a village called South Stainley four miles south of Ripon about half way towards Harrogate.
North Stainley church, dedicated to St Mary, was built in 1840 by local landowners, the Staveley family, who were historic owners of the manor. The local pub is called The Staveley Arms and the family home is Staveley Hall set back from the main village street at the southern end of the village not far from the pub.
Nearby is a mid nineteenth century gazebo opposite the pub. The gazebo is thought to have been built for the Staveley family but its history is sketchy. It seems to have once served as a village lock up.
Lightwater Valley theme park, to the south of the village, began life as a fruit-picking farm founded by Robert Staveley in 1969 on farmland that had belonged to his family since the early sixteenth century. A lake was added to the site in 1976 and it gradually developed into a major tourist attraction noted for funfair rides, becoming Lightwater Valley theme park in 1987.
The Staveley family ultimately take their name from the village of Staveley about five miles south east of Ripon near Boroughbridge. The Staveley name is familiar to supporters of Newcastle United Football Club. Robert Staveley’s daughter, the businesswoman, Amanda Staveley, was a former director of the club.
The Thornborough Henges
Returning to the north side of the River Ure and heading north of West Tanfield are the villages of Thornborough and Nosterfield which are both situated near the prehistoric Thornborough Henges.
Thornborough village after which these three henges are named lies near the central and southernmost of the henges. The village name was originally spelt ‘Thornebergh’ in old records and simply means ‘thorn-hill’, though the ancient, original name for the nearby henges is of course unknown. There are small parking spaces on a road west of the village between the two southerly henges and both can be explored on foot from there.
Further to the north, Nosterfield’s curious name is thought to come from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) ‘thaem eowestrefelda’ meaning ‘at the sheepfold field’. It is perhaps surprising that neither of the two villages near the henges have names that refer to the neighbouring ancient site. Being ‘Old English’, the names of the two villages did not come into being until around 3,000 years after the henges were built.
Nosterfield is situated north of the northernmost of the three circular henges. Car parking at Nosterfield nature reserve provides a short walking route to this henge. The group of nine or so lakes to the north and south east of Nosterfield came into being as a result of quarrying that took place here from the late twentieth century but the area north of the village has long been marshy land known as ‘Flasks’ from a Norse word for swamp.
The enigmatic Thornborough Henges (see also our prehistory page) are arguably the most important prehistoric monument between Stonehenge and the Orkneys. Henges are circular or oval structures built to create a space for ancient spiritual or sacred purposes and should not be confused with stone circles, although some henges such as Stonehenge may contain stone circles too. There are no standing stones at Thornborough.
Situated on a plateau of high ground above the Rive Ure, today standing within the Thornborough Henge site you can see the distant North York Moors to the east and the Pennines to the west. The site is comprised of three huge circular henges in alignment that were built in the Neolithic period about 4,500 years ago (2500 BC). Each henge has a diameter of at least 250 metres (820 feet) and the three henges are laid out in a line that stretches just over a mile.
There is a slight kink in the alignment of the three henges as the northern henge is very slightly out of line with the other two. It makes the whole layout resemble the three stars that form Orion’s belt in the constellation of Orion, which also has the same slight kink in its alignment.
According to a theory suggested on one of the helpful information boards at this English Heritage site, the broad entrances to each of the henges were designed to align with Orion’s Belt and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
The high mounds that bordered the henges blocked out views of the surrounding countryside, so visiting pilgrims of ancient times were focused on the stars of the night sky during ancient ceremonies. The south entrances of the northern and central henges aligned with the sunrise at the midwinter solstice.
It is hard to get a real sense of the layout and scale of this site through photographs, except in aerial views where you cannot fail to be impressed. The northern-most of the three henges is the best preserved of the three with the most extensive remains of the mounds and ditches that formed its walls and banks as well as the causewayed entrance across the ditch.
However, this northern henge (near Nosterfield), forms a heavily wooded copse while the other two henges are bare and exposed. In Neolithic times the tops of the steep circular banks that surrounded each henge may have been covered with white gypsum that would make them visible from great distances.
The henges are thought to have had a processional function and each henge was entered by a causeway that crossed a ditch just within the henge. The nature of the ceremonies that took place here is not known but it may have had some kind of link to the remembrance of ancestors. A burial mound just outside the southern henge has been identified that predates the henges by a thousand years.
Also from about a thousand years before the henges are traces of a rectangular cigar-shaped enclosure called a ‘cursus’. Leaping forward to a later prehistoric era, there are traces of a timber avenue or processional route of some kind that date from between 1,000 to 1,500 years after the henges were built. This runs at right angles to the ‘Orion’s Belt’ and has been identified between the two southerly henges. Burials also took place here around about a thousand years after the henges were built.
The Thornbrough Henges seem to be just one part of a Neolithic ritual landscape between the Swale and the Ure stretching from Brompton on Swale near Catterick in the north to the Devils Arrows standing stones near Boroughbridge in the south. Within this area there are numerous ancient features called round barrows and five other identified henges, two near the Swale in the north and three to the east and north east of Ripon.
Well
On higher ground along Phlashetts Lane and Well Bank to the north west of Nosterfield is the pretty village of Well which has some pleasing views of the neighbouring countryside including the lakes at Nosterfeld. The name of Well derives from natural springs that can be found in its vicinity.
Well was a locality known to the Romans. A Roman villa was located here on what is now the western edge of the village where a much later house, hidden from the roadside by trees, now stands on the site. Roman tessellated pavements and a mosaic were found here in 1859. The mosaic was relocated to Well church. Traces of a Roman bath house have also been found near the villa site.
The church at Well, dedicated to St Michael, is situated towards the eastern side of the village and is partly Norman in origin. There are monuments to the Milbank family inside the church, a family name connected with the village and recalled in the name of the local pub.
Also in the church are monuments to the Neville family of Snape Castle (the Lords Latimer). Snape itself is the next village to the north of Well on the road north to Bedale.
Near Well church is Well Hall, a private house, of which parts seem to date to the thirteenth century. It was likely the old manor house of Well. The village was the site of a hospital established in 1342 called the Hospital of St Richard at Well.
Between the hall and the church are old almshouses, dated 1758 and forming a row of cottages. They may in fact date to the earlier seventeenth century.
Melmerby and Wath
Towards the motorway to the east of Well and Thornborough is the village of Kirklington and south of Kirklington is the village of Sutton Howgrave. The ‘Sutton’ of this village name means ‘south farm’ as there was an earlier, long since deserted medieval village, called Howgrave, immediately to its north.
Early spellings of Howgrave suggest it means ‘grove in the hollow’ rather than being a ‘how’ (a hill). Howgrave Hall, a private residence to the north west, is close to the deserted village site. A building to the rear of the hall may be a former banqueting hall of around 1660. South east of Sutton Howgrave is the little village of Middleton Quernhow. The Quernhow of its name was an ancient tumulus or barrow mound near Ainderby Quernhow, a village across the motorway to the north east. Sadly, the motorway is built through the site of the barrow.
To the south of Sutton Howgrave and Middleton Quernhow are the neighbouring villages of Melmerby and Wath. Melmerby, with a pub called The George and Dragon, is the more easterly and is not far from the A61 Ripon junction of the motorway. Its name is Norse, from an old word ‘malmar’ meaning ‘sandy’. It was the ‘farm on sandy ground’ and has a different origin to Melmerby in Coverdale and the Cumberland village of Melmerby in the Eden Valley, which contain a Norse-Irish personal name, Maelmuire.
Across the motorway east of Melmerby are the villages of Baldersby and Baldersby St James.
Wath village, just west of Melmerby, is another pretty village of one main street and has a name that comes from a Viking word simply meaning ‘ford’ from a former crossing of the Wath Beck here.
The main street consists of brick-built cottages that are typical of the locality and at its eastern end is the thirteenth century church of St Mary. Inside are monuments to the Norton and Graham families who are both connected to nearby Norton Conyers Hall.
Other features of the village include a former grammar school, a rectory, a village farmhouse and a pub called The George.
During the thirteenth century ownership of Wath was disputed between the abbot of Mont St Michel in Normandy and the Marmion family of West Tanfield. The abbot renounced claims to the manor after it was ruled the dispute should be settled by a duel.
There are three other villages called Wath in Yorkshire. One is in Ryedale, one in Nidderdale and another, called Wath-on-Dearne is situated near Rotherham.
Norton Conyers Hall
Norton Conyers Hall just south west of Wath is less than a mile east of the River Ure. It is a handsome house of medieval structure, with Tudor and Stuart additions and a Dutch gabled exterior. It has been home to the Graham family for almost 400 years.
The ‘Conyers’ element of the name also occurs at nearby Hutton Conyers village and is from a family surname. The Conyers held land hereabouts from 1099 to 1133 and were Normans who arrived at the Conquest. They were also connected with Sockburn on the Yorkshire-Durham border where they were associated with the slaying of a legendary wyvern called the Sockburn Worm, immortalised in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.
Norton means ‘north farm’ and a local family took their name from here. The hall was the seat of the Nortons whose numbers included Richard Norton, Chief Justice of England in the late fourteenth century. In 1569 a descendant of Richard, a Sir Richard Norton supported the failed Rising of the North, resulting in the execution of Sir Richard and his two sons, ordered by Queen Elizabeth I.
Norton Conyers estate passed to the Musgraves and then the Graham family in 1624. In 1644 Sir Richard Graham of Norton Conyers fought for the Royalists at Marston Moor. He returned to his hall on horseback with twenty-six battle wounds and died there an hour later.
In 1679, the house played host to the Duke of York (the future James II). Another famous guest, in 1839, was Charlotte Brontë who was inspired by a Norton Conyers legend of a mad aunt incarcerated in the attic. She later immortalised Norton Conyers as Thornfield Hall in her novel Jane Eyre in which the mad aunt appeared as Mrs Rochester. Just south of Norton Conyers Hall, the River Ure approaches the city of Ripon.
The City of Ripon
Ripon is a small but fascinating cathedral city. It was formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire, but now, along with the West Riding towns of Harrogate and Knaresborough to the south, it is located in the county of North Yorkshire. Ripon was situated in the West Riding Wapentake called Claro, named from a hill near Coneythorpe to the east of Knaresborough.
Like the Yorkshire Ridings, Wapentakes are administrative districts of Viking origin, however this Wapentake didn’t use the name Claro until around 1166 and had previously been known as the Wapentake of Burghshire. The burgh in question was Aldborough, which was presumably its meeting place and this may have moved to the hill near Coneythorpe in the twelfth century.
The name Ripon itself is first recorded in Anglo-Saxon times and has what is known as a ‘folk name’ which means that it is a name of tribal origin, referring to a people or tribe who settled in the area. This is quite common for counties and regions but rare for the names of villages, towns or cities, which usually take their names from a single individual or from neighbouring natural and geographical features.
Records of the name Ripon include Hrypis and Hripis in AD 715, Inhrypam in 730, Onripum in 890, Rypum in 1030 and Ripun in the Domesday Book of 1089. Ripon, may have been a place of importance before the building of the first monastery which predates the present cathedral and was perhaps a central meeting place for the Hrype tribe or kinship from which it takes its name.
The origin of this Anglo-Saxon tribal name and its exact tribal boundaries are unknown, but in later medieval times much of the surrounding district was called Riponshire and it may have encompassed these lands. It has however been suggested that the tribal area may have covered Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
Nearby Ripley towards Harrogate to the south, almost certainly means ‘woodland of the Hyrppes’ and a place called Ribston may have been a boundary stone. Repton in Derbyshire derives from ‘Hyrpa dun’ that is thought to mean the hill of the Hyrpe tribe, providing possible evidence for settlement further afield but perhaps there was another tribe of the same name.
Ripon and St. Wilfrid
An Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded at Ripon in AD 657 by Alfrith, ruler of the Northumbrian province of Deira and son of the Northumbrian King called Oswy. At first the monastery was settled by monks from Melrose in north Northumbria (Melrose is now in Scotland) but when the Northumbrians converted from Celtic to Roman Christianity, the monks refused to change their ways. The Melrose monks were evicted from Ripon in AD 671 when St Wilfrid, Bishop of York was given the monastery and became its abbot.
Wilfrid was one of the most influential figures of his time and was the man largely responsible for persuading the North of England (the Kingdom of Northumbria) to convert from Celtic Christianity to Roman Christianity. The key event in this change was the Synod of Whitby in the year AD 664 at which Wilfrid played a major role. In that same year Wilfrid was made Bishop of Lindisfarne but this island was firmly set in its Celtic ways so Wilfrid transferred the Bishopric exclusively to York.
Around AD 672 Wilfrid commenced the building of a new minster church at Ripon on a different site to the earlier monastery. Stonemasons, glaziers and plasterers were employed from Italy and France to build the church. Wilfrid wished to emulate the basilicas of Rome in the building of his church. He also tried to copy the European styles in his abbey at Hexham in Tynedale that was built two years later.
In AD 692 Wilfrid, by now Bishop of Hexham, was banished from the Kingdom of Northumbria after refusing to allow the creation of a new bishopric based at Ripon. John of Beverley became the new Bishop of Hexham but Wilfrid was later allowed to return. He died at the age of 75 while visiting his monastery at Oundle in Northamptonshire, but was buried at Ripon.
St Wilfrid’s return from exile is still celebrated at Ripon each July and August in a special procession. Known as the Feast of St Wilfrid, the ceremony originated in a grant made by King Henry I to Thomas, Archbishop of York in 1108.
Ripon Cathedral
Ripon’s minster church, built by St Wilfrid was granted the privilege of sanctuary by King Athelstan in AD 934 and its status would have continued to grow if it were not for its destruction, probably at the hands of the Vikings in AD 950. All that remains of St Wilfrid’s church today is the Anglo-Saxon crypt, very similar to another Anglo-Saxon crypt that remains at Hexham Abbey.
Shortly after Ripon’s minster was destroyed, a new church was built, this one lasting until its destruction by the Normans some time after 1066. The Normans began building a new church in 1080 under the authority of Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux. Further reconstruction took place a century later in 1181 under Roger de Ponte l’Eveque, who rebuilt the church in the Norman Transitional style. The cathedral as we see it today is largely his work.
Ripon did not actually become a cathedral (from the Latin ‘cathedra’ meaning seat of a Bishop) until 1836 when the diocese of Ripon was created. Stretching from Leeds to the south bank of the River Tees in Teesdale, Ripon was the first diocese to be created since the Reformation.
The father of the writer, Lewis Carroll was a Canon at Ripon Cathedral and a Rector at Croft on Tees. Some of the peculiar misericord carvings in the pews of Ripon Cathedral are said to have inspired such characters as Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
The Ripon Hornblower
Ripon is located on the River Skell which joins the River Ure on the eastern outskirts of the city. It is the Ure that forms the valley of Wensleydale in its upland stretches. The city is centred around a large rectangular market square, surrounded by Georgian buildings. Here we find the Town Hall of 1801, designed by James Wyatt and a 90ft obelisk of 1703 erected by John Aislabie the then mayor of Ripon who built it in place of an earlier market cross.
Ripon’s most famous medieval building, apart from the cathedral is the Wakeman’s House in the market square. It is no longer home to the Wakeman of Ripon, but the Wakeman’s traditional duty of blowing the horn or ‘Setting the Watch’ is still carried out in Ripon – a tradition that has continued for 1,100 years.
At 9pm every evening, a man wearing a three cornered, triangular hat blows a large curved horn in the market place at the obelisk. In historic times the blowing of the horn signified the care of the townsfolk was now in his hands. He was a kind of night-watchman. The services of the wakeman had to be paid for and if any person was robbed during the night, the wakeman had to compensate them for their loss, providing they had paid for his service.
The street-names of Ripon are very typical of northern medieval towns. Many of the streets have names ending in ‘gate’, an old northern word for a street. Thus we have Kirkgate leading from the market place to the cathedral. There is also an Agnesgate, St Marygate, Allhallowgate and Blossomgate along with High and Low Skellgate which lead down to the River Skell.
Markenfield Hall
Markenfield Hall, three miles south of Ripon is an historic private house only occasionally open to visitors. It is reached from the A61 Ripon to Harrogate Road along a side road called Hell Wath Lane and is a mile south east of Fountains Abbey.
The hall almost forms a quadrangle with a courtyard green and is set within an island formed by a moat. The Great Hall, dates back to 1280 and in 1310 Edward II granted John De Markenfield a licence to fortify the house. The De Markenfields had fought at Agincourt, Bosworth and Flodden but as with the Nortons of Norton Conyers, their involvement in the Rising of the North in 1569, brought about their downfall.
Executions of those involved took place across the north but the Markenfields escaped punishment and fled abroad. Subsequent owners of Markenfield took little interest in the hall until 1761 when it was purchased by Sir Fletcher Norton, a descendant of the Markenfields.
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey lies along the valley of the River Skell about two miles west of Ripon. It was founded by a group of thirteen Benedictine monks from St Mary’s Abbey in York. There was a dispute between rival factions of monks at the York abbey that culminated in a riot. Some monks thought that the regime at St Mary’s was not strict enough and wished for a more austere way of living away from the city.
The disagreements with the abbey at St Mary had brought them into conflict with the abbot there, but the monks had the support of Thurstan, the Archbishop of York who invited the monks to his collegiate church at Ripon to celebrate Christmas in the year 1132.
Two days later on December 27, he led them to some waste ground in the valley of the River Skell west of Ripon. Here an abbey was established and a prior called Richard was appointed abbot. The abbey was named Fountains Abbey because of the springs of water that existed in the area.
One of the founding monks of Fountains Abbey that relocated from the York abbey was St. Robert of Newminster (1100-1159) who was born in the Craven area near Skipton (possibly at Gargrave). He later founded the abbey of Newminster near Morpeth in Northumberland from which he was named.
In 1133 the monks of Fountains Abbey adopted the Cistercian way of life and although they struggled in poverty during the early years, the retirement there of Hugh, the Dean of York in 1135, brought considerable wealth to the abbey.
Fountains Abbey lived in prosperity for much of its history and owned vast areas of land across western Yorkshire as far west as Pen-y-Ghent high in the Pennines.
Much of the land around Ripon and in the lower Ure valley was in the possession of Fountains Abbey, although further up the valley in Wensleydale large areas of land belonged to Jervaulx Abbey. Much of the prosperity at these abbeys was based on the trading of wool and lead, utilising two of the Yorkshire Dales’ most abundant resources.
Days of prosperity came to an end with the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 and the last abbot, Marmaduke Bradley was given a pension for his enforced retirement.
His predecessor, William Thirsk, who had been the abbot of Fountains from 1526-1536 was not so lucky. He was executed by King Henry at Tyburn for plotting against the monarch, along with his friend Adam de Sedbergh, who was the last abbot of Jervaulx.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the abbey and its grounds were sold in 1540 by the Crown to a Member of Parliament called Sir Christopher Gresham who had once been a Mayor of London. It was later acquired by Sir Stephen Proctor in 1597.
Around 1604 Proctor built the Jacobean house called Fountains Hall, which lies close to the Fountains Abbey gatehouse. The hall was constructed using building materials taken from the abbey.
The ruins of Fountains Abbey are extensive and are one of the most visited properties belonging to the National Trust and are maintained by English Heritage. The beauty of the ruins and their grounds is made all the more spectacular by their combined location with the grounds of the Studley Royal Estate. Covering 650 acres of park, woodland and ornamental gardens, Studley Royal is also a setting of great beauty.
The grounds here show different stages in the evolution of English gardens and feature ornamental lakes, waterfalls, bridges, follies and towers that make great use of the valley of the River Skell.
Highlights include the Octagonal Tower which is reached through a short curving tunnel that briefly plunges the visitor into pitch-black darkness in broad daylight. The Temple of Piety is another feature of beauty dating from 1736 as is the little Banqueting Hall of 1731.
Studley Royal and its grounds, which include the site of a deserted medieval village called Studley Magna, were the home to the Mallory family from 1452 and passed through marriage in 1667 to the Aislabies.
Laid out in the eighteenth century by John Aislabie, the grounds were located around a hall called Studley Royal House, built 1716-1762 on the site of an earlier medieval manor house. Subsequent owners continued the development of the grounds in various styles, throughout the following century.
John Aislabie was an MP for Ripon and became the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1718. He was one of the principal investors in the South Sea Company that resulted in a crash of stocks known as the ‘South Sea Bubble’ and was subsequently expelled from parliament.
In 1767, John’s son, William Aislabie, purchased the estate of Fountains Abbey and its grounds from the Messenger family who had owned it since 1627. The Fountains Abbey grounds were combined with those of Studley Royal.
Later, the combined estate passed to William’s daughter, Elizabeth Allanson and then later still through distant relatives (the Earls de Grey) to George Frederick Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon.
The prominent Studley Royal church of St Mary on the western edge of the grounds is Victorian and was built by the architect, William Burges for George Frederick Robinson. It was built using money raised for the ransom of Frederick Grantham Vyner, the brother-in-law of the Marquess, who was kidnapped by bandits near Athens in Greece in 1870.
Vyner was murdered before the ransom was paid and the ransom funds were used in the construction of the church. A long avenue stretching for more than a mile in a straight line from the church through the neighbouring deer park offers a perfectly framed view of Ripon Cathedral more than two and a half miles away. A little further along this avenue beyond the lodge gates and to the north is the village of Studley Roger. ‘Studley’ is the ‘ley’ or clearing for a ‘stud’ meaning a herd of horses in its old sense. The village was held by Roger de Mowbray in 1288.
Following the death of Frederick Robinson, the 2nd Marquess of Ripon, in 1923, the estate passed to a cousin, Commander Clare George Vyner. He was noted for establishing an employment, works and skills scheme for unemployed families during the Great Depression, which was called the Fountains Abbey Settlers Society.
Impoverished young men from Tyneside resided in a camp at Fountains Abbey and were taught a range of skills for improving job prospects. Vyner also established a settlement of small houses at Swarland in Northumberland, designed to house and create work for Tyneside tradesmen who were employed in local villages there.
Sadly, the hall of Studley Royal House, that stood in the north west corner of the Studley Royal grounds, about three-quarters of a mile west of Studley Roger, was destroyed by fire in 1946 and the remaining shell was removed. A surviving, neighbouring stable block was converted into a house.
During this period the Vyners sold the grounds and the gardens of Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey to a property company and in 1966 it came under public ownership, purchased by the West Riding County Council. Acquired by the National Trust in 1983, the grounds, including the abbey itself were designated a World Heritage Site in 1986.
We will leave the many villages south of Fountains Abbey and Markenfield Hall, including Ripley and Ripley Castle for another day and will at some point cover them along with Harrogate. Now we will return to the River Ure at Ripon and the nearby Newby Hall.
Newby Hall
South of Ripon, after it is joined by the River Skell, the River Ure flows southward passing Ripon racecourse on its western bank. Racing has been held at this spot since 1900, though there were earlier racecourses in Ripon dating back to the 1660s, including a nineteenth century racecourse on the east bank of the Ure near Hutton Conyers.
Across the Ure east of the present racecourse, set away from the river is the village of Copt Hewick and to its north, Sharrow Hall, a moated farmhouse site. Further east of Copt Hewick towards the motorway is Marton-le-Moor. There are faint traces in aerial photographs of two prehistoric henges in the Copt Hewick and Marton-le-Moor areas called the Cana Barn Henge and Hutton Moor Henge, both of similar size to the henges at Thornborough.
Heading south along the Ure from Ripon racecourse but on the river’s north and eastern bank are the grounds of Newby Hall at a site recorded in the 1170s as ‘Neubi’. By the 1400s Newby belonged to a family called Nubie who took their name from the place. Little is known of the property after that time until the seventeenth century when the manor belonged to the Crossland family.
Crosslands included Sir Jordan Crossland, Governor of Scarborough Castle in Charles II’s reign. Sir Jordan’s son sold Newby to Sir Edward Blackett, later an MP for Ripon. In 1697 the Blacketts rebuilt the house, seemingly with the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren. This new house was built in a new location a little further from the river and the older property was demolished.
In 1748 Newby was sold to the Weddell family and William Weddell employed the Yorkshire architect John Carr in the 1760s. Carr added two wings to the house but by 1767 Robert Adam was being employed to construct the galleries. In 1792 Newby passed to Weddell‘s cousin, Thomas Philip Robinson, the 3rd Lord Grantham and he undertook further work on the property.
Grantham’s daughter, Mary, married into the Vyner famiy of Lincolnshire and through her, Newby passed to the Vyners during the early nineteenth century. It was Mary who instigated the construction of the impressive church in the grounds of the hall. The Compton family who presently own Newby Hall are direct descendants of the Vyners.
North east of Newby Hall is Skelton, a substantial village of pleasant brick houses. The church of Christ the Consoler, outside the village to the south west was built by the architect William Burges between 1871 and 1876. Like his similar church of St Mary on the Studley Royal estate, it was funded with ransom money for the murdered, Frederick Vyner. The funds for this particular church were raised by Frederick’s mother, Lady Mary Vyner.
Across the River Ure to the west of Newby Hall but situated a mile or so from the river is the village of Bishop Monkton. Originally in pre-Conquest times simply called Monkton, meaning ‘farm of the monks’ it was a possession of the Archbishops of York.
Aldborough and Boroughbridge
At Newby Hall, the River Ure has taken on a more easterly direction and after passing the lovely village of Roecliffe, it heads under the A1 (M) motorway with Boroughbridge and Aldborough to the south of the river hosting two ancient sites – the prehistoric Devils Arrows and the youthful by comparison ancient Roman town of Isurium Brigantum, the Roman capital of the Brigantes tribe.
Aldborough and Boroughbridge are situated on the Roman Road called Dere Street near the banks of the River Ure about six miles south east of Ripon. Boroughbridge is named from the bridge across the River Ure here.
In 1322 a battle was fought just to the immediate north side of the bridge between the supporters of Thomas the Earl of Lancaster who had rebelled against King Edward II and the Royalist supporters of the king led by Sir Andrew Harclay.
It was a decisive Royalist victory and Lancaster was subsequently beheaded at Pontefract Castle, following a trial.
A monument to the battle which once stood in the market place at Boroughbridge can be seen in the nearby village of Aldborough.
The ‘borough’ part of Boroughbridge’s name relates to the adjacent village of Aldborough to its east, which means ‘old town’ or ‘old fortified place’ where the Anglo-Saxons perhaps established a fortified village or ‘burgh’ of their own on the site of the Roman town called Isurium Brigantum that was associated with the Brigantes tribe.
Aldborough should not be confused with the village of Aldbrough (Aldbrough St. John), near Scotch Corner, which is located next to the huge Iron Age fortification at Stanwick that is also associated with the Brigantes.
Much of Aldborough village lies within the boundaries of the Roman town of Isurium Brigantum and its associated buildings, with the most significant traces found in a Victorian ‘antiquarian garden’ on the south west side of the village, which is a property of English Heritage.
The Romans established a settlement at Aldborough, to form trade links and encourage civilisation within the ranks of the Brigantian tribe. By AD 150 this settlement had grown into the defended Roman town called Isurium Brigantum.
It was a civilian township, being the cantonial civitas (city) of the Brigantes and the most northerly tribal centre in Roman Britain. It was mostly occupied by civilians, who were probably local, including some of high status, but there were also likely some military occupants for its defence. A small Roman fort (Roecliffe fort) also existed nearby on the banks of the Ure to the west, between Boroughbridge and Roecliffe.
Roman finds at Aldborough include a Roman cemetery, pottery, glassware and jewellery, including brooches. The English Heritage maintained part of the site where most of the best visible earthworks can still be seen, is only one very small part of the whole Roman town.
Other nearby features include an impressive Roman quarry where red sandstone used in the building of the Roman town was excavated, although other stone used in its construction came from as far away as the Yorkshire Dales. Two mosaics from the small reception rooms of a Roman house can still be seen at their original site, protected by buildings constructed around them for their conservation and protection in the 1830s and 1840s.
The English Heritage site which includes a small museum and visitor centre, encompasses a landscaped Victorian garden which incorporated several elements of the Roman town as features. Here we can see highlighted traces of ramparts, town walls, houses and the foundations of towers.
Just outside the Roman town and in a field on the south east side of the present village are earthwork traces of a Roman amphitheatre, where gladiatorial combats and other entertainment took place.
The church at Aldborough is dedicated to St Andrew and is fourteenth century, replacing an earlier Norman church that was destroyed by Scottish raiders around 1318. The Norman church stood on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church which in turn is thought to have stood on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Mercury. The church stands right at the centre of a long-lost forum or market square of the Roman town.
Some of the stones in the church tower are Roman and there is a relief carving of Mercury set into the church wall. Another interesting feature within the church, is the life-size brass memorial of local knight, Sir William de Aldeburg, dating from 1360.
The great antiquity of the Aldborough area is further demonstrated by the presence of the famous Devil’s Arrows near the eastern edge of neighbouring Boroughbridge.
Here are three (originally four) prehistoric monoliths or menhirs that are respectively 18 feet, 21 feet and 22 feet in height, each with a depth of 5 ft.
Underneath the ground they are packed with cobbles, clay and grit and the underlying surfaces of the stones were flattened to keep them stable on the underlying clay.
The missing fourth stone which stood a couple of metres from the central stone was removed in the sixteenth century in an unsuccessful attempt to find supposed hidden treasure. Some records claim that there may have originally been five or even seven stones.
The southern stone is separated slightly from the other town and tucked away behind a gate beyond the field where the other two stand. It is the second tallest ancient standing stone in Britain and taller than all those at Stonehenge.
In legend the Devil’s Arrows (also known as the Devil’s Bolts; Three Sisters or Three Greyhounds) are said to have been made by the Devil’s rope, scraping the ground when he tried to hang his grandmother.
Another story is that the devil was somehow offended by the townsfolk of Aldborough and threw stones at the place from his lair at How Hill (near Fountains Abbey). All of the thrown stones fell short. It is thought that the stones actually served some sort of ceremonial purpose and date from the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age between 5,000 and 3,500 years goes ago. They are part of a prehistoric ritual landscape that includes Thornborough Henges to the north.
Just under two miles east of Aldborough and Boroughbridge the River Ure is joined by the River Swale from the north near Myton-on-Swale but continues as the River Ure for a mile or so towards Aldwark where it becomes the River Ouse as it begins its approach to York.
Myton is on the south side of the River Swale but is less than half a mile from the junction with the River Ure. The village church here dedicated to St Mary, is thirteenth century and there is an old hall to the east, dating from the seventeenth century. From 1294 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, Myton belonged to St Mary’s Abbey in York. The name of Myton comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘myðe-tun’ (myth-tun) which means farm or settlement at the river confluence (a river mouth).
An iron bridge of 1868 across the Swale to the north bank leads to the site of the Battle of Myton which took place in 1319. Fought between the English under the leadership of William Melton, the Archbishop of York and the Scots under James Douglas and Lord Randolph, the Scots were the victors. Many of the Yorkshiremen fighting for their Archbishop were drowned in the River Swale.
Explore Yorkshire
Select an area on the interactive history map above
Explore North East England
Select an area on the interactive history map above