More information : [SE 3145 7112] The Minster [TU] (1)
The Cathedral Church of St. Peter & St. Wilfred originated as a cell of Melrose in 660. The crypt is Saxon, the Chapter House and All Souls Chapel is Norman, and the West front is 13th century The nave was rebuilt in the 15th century. Detailed description. [Plan. See AO/62/140/7.] (2-3)
Still in use for public worship.(4)
Shewn on the Dark Age Period Map as a Bishops Seat, and a Monastic site. (c. 660). (5)
Ripon. St Peter (and St Wilfrid, later). Alchfrith, sub-king of Deira (circa 654-664) granted land for a monastery to the monks of Melrose, who left when he granted it to St Wilfrid (before 660) who formed a community probably under the Order of St Benedict. Wilfrid built a large stone church of which the crypt remains and after his death in 709 his body was brought from Oundle to Ripon for burial. The monastery was destroyed by the Danes circa 875, then restored but burnt down during internal warfare circa 948. It is said to have been rebuilt for secular priests after 972 by Archbishop Oswald and prebends are attributed to Archbishop Ealdred after 1061. Dissolved 1546-47. (6)
SE 3171 RIPON MINSTER ROAD
(south side)
1/1
27.5.49 Ripon Minster (Cathedral Church of St Peter
and Wilfrid) (formerly listed as The Minster)
The earliest church was a Scottish monastery, re-organised by St Wilfrid along Benedictine lines circa 660. Some time between 660 and the Archepiscopate of Ealdred (1060-69) it was re-founded as a College of secular canons, with 7 prebends (attached to particular localities from 1301), and under the patronage of the Archbishop of York. It was at the same time a parish church, which it remained after the College was dissolved at the Dissolution of the Chantries in 1547. In 1604 the College was re-founded by James I with a slightly different organisation (a Dean, a sub-Dean, and non-territorial prebendaries). It was dissolved during the Commonwealth, but re-founded again in 1660. In 1836 Ripon became a diocese consisting of the western part of the Diocese of York and the Yorkshire part of the Diocese of Chester (itself taken from the mediaeval Diocese of York in 1541). The College was replaced by a Dean and Chapter, and the church became a cathedral, which it remains. The building consists, in part, of St Wilfred's monastery, and, in part of restorations and
improvements undertaken for the C19 cathedral; but it is substantially the church of the mediaeval college.
Crypt Anglo-Saxon. Chapter House perhaps Norman, although the vaulting looks C13. Remainder begun by Archbishop Roger of Pont l'Evegre (1154-81), and completed by Archbishop Walter Gray (1215-55); except for eastern bays of choir, nave aisles, and library. Although Archbishop Roger's work at York is late Norman, here it is in a fully developed and sophisticated early Gothic style. Eastern bays of choir, including sumptuous sedilia (in the Lincolnshire-Nottinghamshire-East Riding style of circa 1320), probably early C14. Library also C14. South side of western bays of choir altered in C15. Pulpitum also C15.
Nave drastically altered and aisles added in early C16; and the south transept east side clerestory also probably dates from this time. The works in 1514 and again in 1520-1 were in the charge of Christopher Scure, previously master mason at Durham. In 1615 the spire on the crossing tower collapsed; in 1664 the spires on the 2 western towers were taken down. Restorations in 1829-31 by Edward Blore, in 1843-4 by William Railton, and in 1862 by Sir Gilbert Scott; the latter was the most drastic, consisting principally of removing the tracery from the lancets of the west front, giving them their well-known but illusory effect of being slightly earlier than they actually are, and this conforming to advanced taste of the 1860s. (7)
Several fragments of Saxon sculptured stones have been found in the church:
1: incomplete 8th century cross-shaft inscribed with Latin script. Now in York Museum.
2: Early C8 cross-head part now in the Mercer gallery, Harrogate.
3: Incomplete Late C9-10 cross-head. Now in St Wilfrid's church, langdale Road, Blackpol.
4: Part of late C9-early C10 cross-head in Ripon Cathedral treasury.
5: Late C7-early C8 cross-arm fragment in the Mercer Art Gallery.
6: Fragment of late C7th-early 8th cross arm in the Mercer Art Gallery.
7: C8-9 grave-marker reused at the west end of the south passage of the crypt.
8: C7 altar pillar, cross-base, or corner closure slab, in the crypt.
9: Two lengths of late C8th-early-C9th string-course or imposts, built into a buttress on the nW corner of the N transept.
10: Probable capital of C7th-early C8th date, since 1984 reused as the central suporting element of an altar in the Chapel of the Resurrection.
11: Late C7th-C8th fragment in the Mercer Art Gallery. (8) |