City of Ripon

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the coat-of-arms of Ripon in North Yorkshire, Britain's fourth smallest city.

I am very excited to be visiting this beautiful town this coming week-end with my partner Nick for the new Jonny Hannah show, 'White Horses and Unquiet Graves' at Hornsey's gallery and the Museum of British Folklore at Newby Hall nearby (http://www.hornseys.com/forthcoming-events). I cannot wait.

I shall also be meeting Daniel Hornsey, proprietor of said gallery, for the first time, and presenting him with a number of my recent 'Mister Dark' print for him to sell.

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, located at the confluence of the rivers Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally significant, as well as the Ripon Racecourse and other features such as its market.

The city itself is just over 1,300 years old. It is one of only two cities in North Yorkshire, the other being York. The city was originally known as Inhrypum and was founded by Saint Wilfrid during the time of Angle kingdom of Northumbria, a period during which it enjoyed prominence in terms of religious importance in Great Britain.

It is also renown for the tradition of the Ripon Hornblower which has endured for centuries and continues on to this day. It originates with the wakeman of Ripon, whose job in the Middle Ages was similar of that to a mayor although he had more responsibilities in the keeping of law and order. Every day at 9:00pm the horn is blown at the four corners of the obelisk in Ripon Market. The horn has become the symbol of the city and represents Ripon on the Harrogate borough coat of arms. Doubly appropriate then that the exhibition is being held at Hornseys on the city's Kirkgate!