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Our last full day in Yorkshire was spent in Ripon. We had our usual leisurely breakfast and then drove into Ripon and found the long stay car park, where we paid for all day parking.
First we walked down the the canal basin, crossing the River Skell on a footbridge, from where we could see a tiny weir with the water spilling over in an interesting pattern. There was a tyre stuck in the middle of it. Apparently it had been there for a week and nobody had been in to fish it out, and there wasn't sufficient current to shift it by itself. A pub called "The Water Rat" occupied the river bank on the south side.
We took some stale bread with us and fed a solitary swan and numerous ducks in the canal basin. Most of them were mallards, but a few were of doubtful parentage, although Stephen suspected that the non-mallard parent was probably an Aylesbury.
There was a jewellery shop behind the canal basin and we stopped to talk to the owner, Alana, and look at her pieces. She had mostly necklaces on display and said that she tends not to make earrings except to order. She showed us which sort of pliers you need for making your own jump rings.
We walked back towards the road bridge over the River Skell, and there was a set of stairs down to the river which we went down to take some riverside pictures. We discovered a riverside path, and followed it back to the footbridge, which was nearer to where we wanted to be on the other side than the road bridge would have put us.
We walked through the churchyard surrounding the rear of Ripon Cathedral, intending to make Ripon Cathedral our next stop, but found that a wedding was just about to start, so we nipped across to the tourist information office and then back to the car where we sat for a little while and took the weight off our feet. Stephen swapped his still camera for a video camera, while I picked up my tripod and then we went back to the Cathedral just as the wedding was finishing. We don't know who the happy couple were, but we took some pictures of them anyway, and we wish them well in their married life.
With the wedding out of the Cathedral, we went in, and we had the place almost to ourselves. There was an official guide there and he was very helpful, pointing out to me where to find the Cheshire Cat in the south transept and explaining what the misericords were. It turns out that they were choir stalls containing a support which allowed people to stand up but take a bit of weight off their feet. There was interesting carving on most of these stalls. Some of it was on a biblical theme, but some wasn't. Among the non-biblical carvings were two stalls where the green man was depicted, and another stall containing a carving of dragons. I took my camera off the tripod and attached it to my beanbag to photograph some of the misericord carvings. I didn't attempt to record them all, as there was no spot to settle the beanbag for some of them. I got a representative selection, including both the green man carvings, the dragons, Samson carrying away the city gates and Jonah being eaten by the whale.
I photographed the pulpit, which the guidebooks variously describe as art noveau and arts and crafts. I missed out on photographing the high altar, although it is visible in some of the pictures I took of the choir. I also didn't photograph the font, although I did see it at the south west end of the Cathedral.
There is a lovely screen between the nave and the choir and I took individual pictures of the larger figures within the screen. They date to the 1940s, so are not as old as some of the Cathedral's contents.
I photographed a representative selection of the stained glass in the windows, including a modern window, several Victorian windows and one window containing small panels of mediaeval glass.
While we were in the Cathedral, there was a wedding rehearsal, a choir practice, and then Evensong was sung by an unaccompanied male choir. That took place in the choir, and the door in the screen between the nave and the choir was shut while the service was in progress. However, it was broadcast though speakers to the rest of the Cathedral, so although we were in the nave, we were able to hear the whole service.
Stephen went down briefly into the 7th Century crypt, but I didn't go down. I would have had to break down the tripod to go down the steps, which were narrow and spiral. I suppose I should have gone and looked at it, really.
We left the Cathedral at 6:30pm, thinking that the floodlights would soon be switched on, but in the event, we had to wait until after 7pm for them, and when they came on, they didn't turn them all on, and photography of the Cathedral under floodlight turned out to be less than satisfactory.
Just down the street from the Cathedral there was a balti house which was wafting wonderful coriander aromas, and I decided that I didn't want to eat my frozen sweet and sour chicken for dinner after all, but really wanted Indian food. We went quickly into Sainsbury's for a loaf of bread and some bargain videocam tapes, put our cameras in the car, and then I went into the balti house for a takeway while Stephen went into the establishment on the other side of the road, where he got a very up-market burger to take away.
We brought our food back to the cottage to eat. As it's our last night, we should be packing up, as we have to be out of the cottage by 10:00am in the morning. It will be interesting putting everything into the car, as the two teapots are in quite large boxes and will significantly alter the fit of our luggage.
More from our October 2007 holiday in Yorkshire: Yorkshire Holiday Travelogue - 13th October, 2007
Back to Yorkshire Holiday Travelogue - 11th October, 2007
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Last Revised: 22nd October, 2007.