The university is descended from two Anglican teacher training colleges, which were founded in York in 1841 (for men) and 1846 (for women). In 1862, the women's college relocated to Ripon. Over the next century, the colleges gradually diversified their education programmes. The colleges merged in 1974 to form the College of Ripon and York St John. In 1990 the combined institution became a college of the University of Leeds. Between 1999 and 2001, all activities were transferred to York and the college received the name York St John College. The former buildings of the Ripon college and its halls of residence have subsequently been redeveloped by property developers. On October 1, 2006 the college became York St John University.

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Population

Ripon Town Hall.

Ripon's blend of rural-poor, lower and upper middle class types, and a few wealthy landowners make the city, in socioeconomic terms, a fascinatingly diverse place, given its comparatively small population. Ethnically Ripon noticeably is not diverse, particularly in comparison to towns in West Yorkshire. There is also a large military presence, due to the sizeable army camp located on the outskirts of the city.

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Transport

Ripon once had a railway station, on the North Eastern Railway, later part of the LNER. It lay on a section between Harrogate and Northallerton, which was part of the main route from Leeds northwards. It had been a very busy line, served by trains running between Liverpool and Newcastle, and until the 1960s was served by named expresses including the Queen of Scots Pullman, which ran between King's Cross and Glasgow. The Harrogate to Northallerton section lost its passenger services in March 1967, and the line closed completely in September 1969, despite a vigorous campaign by local campaigners, including the city's MP. It was revealed that in its final complete year of operation the section had made an operating loss of barely £12,000 despite no attempt having been made to cut costs. Nevertheless, Ripon still joined a list, also including Wells and Southwell, of English cathedral towns and cities that have lost their railway. In recent years there has been a movement to restore the line, at least between Harrogate and Ripon, with the cost being an estimated £40 million. Ironically, the city's bypass, completed in the mid 1990s, utilises part of the railway line's course just to the east of the city, and crosses the River Ure just yards from where the railway used to. The station still stands but is now mostly surrounded by new houses. Reconstruction of the railway is not impossible, though a filled-in cutting and short tunnel just north of Wormald Green would have to be re-excavated, but the line could not follow its former route through Ripon itself, and could not use the original station. This might be to the line's benefit, as more people had used the former station to travel south than north, but with the station situated on the north-eastern edge of the city, it had been criticised for being over a mile from the city centre and in the wrong direction.

The main road through the city is the A61, linking it to Harrogate to the south and the A1 to the north. Access to the southbound A1(M) and the rest of the motorway network is by the B6265.

The lack of a railway means that the city has a frequent high-quality bus service to Leeds (Route 36), regular buses to Boroughbridge and York (142 and 143), Thirsk and Northallerton (70), and Leyburn and Richmond (159), as well as a range of other local bus services.

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References

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External links

• Official Ripon City Partnership "Visit Ripon" site
• Ripon Tourist, Community and Business Information
• Ripon Tourist Information and Business Directory
• Ripon & District Amateur Radio Society
• Ripon Cathedral
• The Ripon Gazette
• A history of the choristers of Ripon Cathedral
• Newby Hall Cricket Club - Nurturing the future of cricket
• Ripon's monthly free magazine for residents and visitors
• Photos of Ripon and surrounding area
• Ripon Museums The Yorkshire Law and Order Museums