Cathedral Church of Saint Peter & Saint Wilfrid, Ripon

A one-day pilgrimage crosses seven miles of countryside to the cathedral, which is also on the Yorkshire Dales Abbeys Way and the Bradford to Ripon Yorkshire Heritage Way

Highlights

• St Wilfrid’s crypt
• Site of early saints
• Holy well

This is among the earliest English cathedrals to be established, built in 672 by one of our most important early saints. You can still visit the crypt of St Wilfrid’s original building, a labyrinth of underground chambers and stairways full of far-off mystery and the lingering traces of a once legendary relic collection.

Though the relics themselves have long gone, the crypt is one of the earliest places of Saxon worship still intact, and the oldest crypt. A stone staircase at the front of the nave leads through dark passageways into a central chamber, where pilgrims would finally come upon the cathedral’s precious relics. The effect of such a design would have been overwhelming in its day, when wooden huts and bare earth floors were the limit of domestic architecture.

The cathedral guide says the crypt was designed to emulate Christ’s own subterranean tomb. A panel nearby however says the design was based on the buildings St Wilfrid saw during his visits to Rome, where he collected the relics displayed here. It was probably inspired by both.

St Wilfrid’s tomb was on the south side of the high altar, visited by pilgrims until his relics were moved to Canterbury in the 10th century. Other saints passed through Ripon in their lifetime, including St Eata and St Cuthbert who visited in661, and St Ceolfrith who later became Bede’s abbot at Jarrow. None of them was buried here. Pilgrims are very welcome even so, and the St Wilfrid’s Way runs from Leeds to this cathedral.

Rather wisely the cathedral keeps its crypt empty, in memory of Christ’s own empty tomb. Quite how you would go about recreating the furnished interior of a Saxon reliquary crypt is anyone’s guess.

Above this ancient crypt stands an enormous 12thcenturyminster, a spacious and bright place even with its heavy Norman columns. Ripon was an abbey when St Wilfrid founded it, though he served here as bishop in his later years. It only formally became a cathedral in 1836.

St Wilfrid worked throughout England, founding churches in Sussex, Hampshire, Worcestershire and Northumberland among other places. He operated in three different Saxon kingdoms. He also visited Rome three times to see the Pope and spent a year as a missionary in Frisia, which is now the Netherlands.

Quite how he managed to fit so much into his life is hard to fathom, particularly given the amount of time he spent arguing with fellow churchmen and various monarchs. King Egfrith of Northumbria even locked him up for a while after one acrimonious argument.

His career, interrupted by various trips abroad and the spell in prison, goes as follows: abbot of Ripon, bishop of York, bishop of Selsey, bishop of York again, bishop of Leicester, bishop of Hexham, and finally joint bishop of both Hexham and Ripon. He died aged 76 at Oundle in Northamptonshire in 709/710 and was buried at Ripon, the first and last place on his extensive CV. He is remembered on 12 October.

St Wilfrid was phenomenally wealthy, founding some of England’s most important early churches. He travelled with a retinue of up to 120 people, his wealth deriving from the vast monastic lands given to him by various kings. St Wilfrid was not afraid to use money as a sign of authority. Thanks to him Ripon had a fabulous Gospel written on purple parchment, its letters picked out in gold. All these fine trappings have long since vanished, with one solitary exception. A small round jewel, an inch in diameter, was discovered near the cathedral in 1976. It is displayed in the cathedral’s Treasury, a gold medallion inlaid with amber and garnets.

Mention must be made of St Wilfrid’s holy well in Ripon, particularly given the saint’s penchant for nightly cold-water baths. For all the glamour of its patron, it is best overlooked in its current state. It is next to a main road out of town, a stone trough with a spout that no longer flows. There was water in the well chamber itself when I visited, beneath a thick layer of algae. There was no sign alongside, and no bathing either.

Directions

Ripon Cathedral, Minster Road, Ripon HG4 1QS

www.riponcathedral.org.uk

W3W: yield.rises.dusts

GPS: 54.1350N 1.5209W cathedral

W3W: most.prowl.offhand

GPS: 54.1343N 1.5290W well

The cathedral is in the middle of this small city. It is open Mon–Sat 8:30am–6pm, Sun12noon–5pm. Entry free, donations welcomed. The holy well is on the B6265 to the west of the cathedral, by the pedestrian entrance to Ripon Spa Gardens. It is just west of the turning into 37–45 Skellbank, a modern housing development on the opposite side of the road.