In North Yorkshire, Ripon Cathedral spreads its two-towered Gothic west front above a seventh-century crypt, one of the oldest in England. Its history in the Renaissance combines the flowering of late Gothic art and the brutal interruptions of the Reformation.
A great late-Gothic building campaign
After the end of the Wars of the Roses (1485), the great building campaign of Ripon resumed brilliantly. The Ripon school of carvers — renowned workshops that also worked at Beverley and Manchester — carved between 1489 and 1494 the 34 misericords of the stalls: these small carved brackets beneath the seats, adorned with historiated, comic or fantastic scenes, rank among the finest in England. Then, from 1501 to 1522, the nave walls were raised and the aisles added. Ripon was then living the apogee of Perpendicular Gothic, on the eve of the turmoil.
Dissolution and restoration
The Reformation struck. In 1547, Edward VI dissolved the college of canons that served the church: its revenues passed to the Crown, and the great architectural project was cut short — the tower would never receive its planned final Perpendicular arches, a scar still visible today. It was not until 1604 that James I, by charter, restored the collegiate institution. Ripon thus illustrates how the Reformation brutally interrupted the creative momentum of English Gothic: century-long building campaigns were cut short, leaving buildings for ever unfinished. To see: the carved misericords (1489-1494), the two-towered Gothic west front, the crypt of St Wilfrid (seventh century), the great geometric east window.
Did you know?
One of the misericords of Ripon (c. 1489-1494) shows a rabbit (or a griffin) disappearing into a burrow underground. Now Lewis Carroll's father was a canon at Ripon, and young Charles Dodgson knew these carvings well. According to a persistent tradition, this rabbit plunging underground inspired the famous White Rabbit that leads Alice into his burrow, at the beginning of Alice in Wonderland. A masterpiece of late Gothic may thus have fed one of the greatest tales of childhood.
Notes
Ripon Cathedral lies at Ripon, North Yorkshire; a working cathedral, open to visits. Hours to check.
Quiz
- What did the Ripon school of carvers carve (1489-1494)?
- The 34 misericords of the stalls
- A spire
- An organ
- Who dissolved the college of canons in 1547?
- Edward VI
- Elizabeth I
- The pope
- Which tale is a misericord said to have inspired?
- Alice in Wonderland (the White Rabbit)
- Robinson Crusoe
- Peter Pan