Friday 14 July 2017

What We Did Tuesday

Sorry - I have messed up chronologically, telling you about Wednesday at the Great Yorkshire Show before even mentioning Tuesday. There are no photos for that day, so I'll try to be brief.

It rained nearly all day, so instead of walking to Fountains Abbey (which was our original plan), we decided to stay in town and put in a museum day. 
Ripon has three main museums: The Workhouse, Police & Prison and The Courthouse Museum. As you can see, all three of them obviously do not focus on particularly cheerful topics, but since my sister had never been to them and my last visit was more than 10 years ago, we still went.

The Workhouse was where we started. It is situated in what really used to be the workhouse, a place where anyone who was too poor to look after themselves would end up as long as they were originally from Ripon and its surrounding villages and had no friends or family to support them.
For many years, poor people of both sexes, young and old, some of them petty criminals, others of decent character who had ended up there through no fault of their own, were forced to live and work there under extremely strict rules and harsh conditions. Everything about the rules, laws making the existence of such institutions possible, and daily life there (with an emphasis on children and vagrants) is explained and presented in the museum in great detail. After about an hour, my sister and I felt both rather depressed, but of course glad to be alive today, in a country where we can largely decide  on how and where we want to live.

What do you do on a rainy day when you come out of a museum slightly depressed? Retail therapy!!! But first, we needed sustenance, and enjoyed a nice meal at a small café, topping it with chocolate brownies (another great remedy for this kind of "depression"). Then we visited our favourite shops, bought some books and later went to the cathedral. There, we bought tickets for the organ recital that was to take place there the same night.
By this time, our pre-lunch depression was completely gone, and when we arrived at the cathedral for the recital in the evening, we were really looking forward to that.

And we were not disappointed! The recital in the beautiful setting of the cathedral was a most wonderful experience. The organist, Peter King, explained a little about every piece he played. It was a pleasure to listen to him as well as to see him play with such passion and enthusiasm. Afterwards, wine and nibbles were served - all that for 8 pounds! There were only about 30-40 people in the audience; I wonder why these recitals are not more popular. All through July and August, they are held every Tuesday night, and we are planning to go again next week.

You can find out more about Peter King on his website at www.peterking.org.

6 comments:

  1. It makes you think how tough life was back then.

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    1. It really was, and I keep thinking that at least at the workhouse, they had three meals a day, were required to wash every day, regular baths, clean clothes and a roof over their heads. All that wasn't available to those out on the streets, or even for some farm hands.

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  2. I think the Workhouse museum sounds quite interesting; but I can also imagine it being hard to take it all in, all in one visit like that. I often feel like that too when visiting historical museums. There were a lot of poor people in Sweden as well, back in the "not so good old days"... I often find myself amazed at how they managed at all.

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    1. At that museum, the dry facts (which of course we all more or less know) are brought home in such realistic manner - because it IS the original house, and those WERE the cells and beds and blankets those poor people slept in etc. - that it affects you more than just reading about the past.

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  3. When I was a child one of the old Liverpool workhouses had been 'converted' into a home for old people who had no means of looking after themselves or of being looked after. As a child visiting someone it was an experience that has stuck with me for over 60 years. I never cease to give thanks for the era and in the place in which I have lived.

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    1. Same here, Graham. Gratitude is one emotion I am very familiar with, as I feel it every day.
      The workhouse in Ripon was converted into an old people's home, too; this happened in the 1930s and was kept going, I think, until the late 1970s or so. The last person to be the porter/watchman there kept going back to visit the old folks until his death; he had befriended each and every one of then. Such a difference to the former matrons and masters there, who were actively discouraged from showing friendliness to any of the inmates.

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