Museums
Ripon is fortunate to have three museums in the heart of its City centre.
Recently featured in both the BBC’s “How We Built Britain” with David Dimbleby and ‘England’s Thousand Best Houses’ by Simon Jenkins each of the three museums offers a fascinating insight into the lives and treatment of the Victorian poor and infirm, poachers and petty thieves. Follow the fortunes of convicts sentenced in the Georgian Courthouse, which remains little altered since it opened in 1830.
At the Prison and Police Museum you can turn the crank, try on uniforms and imagine the horror of being restrained, birched or confined in a solitary cell at the Ripon Liberty Gaol of 1816. Take time to inspect the work done from 1854 by 120 poor men, women and children who were housed in the imposing Victorian Workhouse. ‘Carbolic charity’ was the order of the day in the casual wards where the vagrants came – delousing, supping gruel and spending the night locked in one of the 14 cells. Visit our new exhibition ‘Dabs - Fingerprinting over 101 years.
Ripon’s Law and Order Museums are all open daily from 1st April to 31st October from 1pm to 4pm (11am to 4pm in school holidays). A ‘3 in 1’ special ticket costs just £5 per adult (£4 concessions). Accompanied children under 16 are free. Individual museum tickets available. Group tours can be arranged.
St Marygate, Ripon
Tel: 01765 690799
The complex of buildings in St Marygate served Ripon as the House of Correction for Vagrants (1686-1816), Liberty Prison (1816-1878) and Police Station (1887-1956). The Museum, first opened in 1984 and reopened in 2004 following a complete refurbishment.
Minister Road, Ripon
Tel: 01765 690799
Visitors enter through what used to be the Jury Room where there are a pair of Halberds displayed on the wall.
Allhallowgate, Ripon
Tel: 01765 690799
A Workhouse has stood on this site since 1776. The present building was completed in January, 1855.
