Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon: A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its FabricHallett, Cecil Walter Charles
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon: A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric
Hallett, Cecil Walter Charles
Ripon Cathedral
In 1625 a plague, such as had not occurred here since 1546, prevented
the country folk from approaching the minster, and obliged them to have
their children baptized in the fields. Several changes in the
surroundings of the church took place at this time. The Bedern, with its
quadrangle, hall, and chapel, had been demolished by 1625, in which year
the Deanery was erected, perhaps upon its site. Of the old prebendal
houses some had been sold, or let; others, perhaps, were occupied by the
Prebendaries of the new foundation. In 1629 the ancient Palace, which
stood to the north of the minster and west of the Deanery, was turned
into a poor-house. The town (and doubtless the minster) was visited in
1633 by Charles I. on his way to his coronation at Edinburgh.[28] A few
years later he was to pass through again, a captive on his way to Holmby
House.
Ripon had escaped the Wars of the Roses, but it was not unscathed by the
Great Rebellion, for in 1643 it was occupied by Sir Thomas Mauleverer, a
Parliamentary officer, whose soldiery broke into the minster and
shattered the magnificent glass in the great east window, and doubtless
much other glass besides. At the end of the war the manorial rights were
sold to Lord Fairfax, and the Chapter was again dissolved, "one who
called himself Dr. Richardson" being "appointed to preach in the minster
by the Parliament, tho' in all probability he was never in any Orders,
Presbyterian or Episcopal."[29] The Chapter was revived at the
Restoration, but all its members were new save one.
In the same year (1660) the central spire, which had been injured by
lightning in 1593, fell through the roof, wrecking many of the beautiful
canopies of the stalls. The damage to the choir and other parts of the
church, estimated at L6000, was repaired with money raised under a brief
from Charles II., but the spire was never rebuilt, and in 1664, to avoid
any further catastrophe, the western spires, though sound, were
deliberately removed.[30] The place of the spires was ill supplied by
the erection of battlements and pinnacles, which were renewed in 1797.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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