The Historic Towns Trust’s new map of Ripon, created in partnership with Ripon Together, was published in October 2024 and launched in Ripon Cathedral on 24 October. The launch was part of an event celebrating Ripon Together’s Stars, awards for outstanding contributions to the community. A large number of people gathered to hear brief talks about the map and the Star awards – one of which went to Mick Stanley of Ripon Together, who together with David Winpenny led on the Ripon side of making the map.
The map summarises Ripon’s long history, from the 7th century through to the early 20th century. The Minster (since 1836 a cathedral) stands on the site of the church founded by St Wilfrid in 1672, and remains the dominant feature in Ripon’s townscape – despite the loss of its central spire and tower spires in the 17thcentury. The church played a similarly dominant part in Ripon’s development as a market town and centre of jurisdiction, with the Minster and its staff, the archbishop of York (who had a palace or manor-house in the Ripon) and the nearby Cistercian Fountains Abbey all active and influential.
A map lays the townscape out flat, but Ripon is notably up-and-down, shaped by the underlying terrain. The ground slopes down from the cathedral precint to the waterways that contributed to Ripon’s economic importance. In the 14th and 15th centuries Ripon was one of the largest cloth-producers in Yorkshire, and the the rivers Laver and Skell had several mills, some of them serving the clothmaking industries. A stream with a mill ran down Water Skellgate. Later industries included the manufacture of spurs, for which Ripon was famed in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Ure Navigation or Ripon Canal, opened in 1773, connected Ripon with the navigable River Ure.
The Historic Towns Trust’s historical maps sum up history on a single page, but an atlas with maps showing development at different periods can unpack that history. Work is currently proceeding on an atlas of Canterbury, following on from the publication of the historical map in 2021: we hope very much that the successful partnership that brough together the historical map of Ripon will proceed to an atlas too in due course.