Pictures from a weekend in my home town of Ripon in mid February

RiponMarketPlace

The market place with its obelisk.

RiponCathedralLibrary

The library of Ripon Cathedral. Despite a population of about 16 000, Ripon is technically a city as its cathedral is the seat of the bishopric of Ripon and Leeds.

RiponWorkhouse

The workhouse museum is one of three linked by a theme of “law and order”.

SevenBridges RiponStudleyBendRiponLake RiponGrotto

Pictures from Studley Royal Park just west of Ripon, which was created from 1718 onwards by John Aislabie and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

RiponFountains

Studley Park contains the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Fountains Abbey (National Trust), which in some part owes its relatively preserved state to the romantic role of its ruins in Aislabie’s park.

RiponFountainsDrains RiponCellarium

(L) A number of abbey buildings (and not just the latrines!) extend over the River Skell, including (R) the impressive cellarium used for storage.

Randoms

CliffordsTower

Clifford’s Tower, York, the unusually shaped keep, and all that remains, of York Castle.

FulneckMoravian

The chapel in the curious Moravian settlement of Fulneck (south Leeds), founded in 1744.