So, "for the record" (and for Meike and her horn blowing friends):
I have once seen (and heard) the Hornblower of Ripon; and it was on 27th June 1974, at 9 p.m.
Except Ye Lord Keep Ye Cittie Ye Wakeman Waketh In Vain
The horn blowing tradition in Ripon is said to go all the way back to 886, when king Alfred the Great decided to grant a Royal Charter to the settlement there. A watchman was appointed to patrol the settlement from dusk till dawn; and to sound the horn at the four corners of the market cross each evening at 9pm to let the people know that the watch was set. And the tradition is said to have been kept up ever since - i.e. over 1100 years.
In Meike's recent post (linked to above), you can read about the first female Hornblower, appointed in 2017!
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Linking to Sepia Saturday 467
which happens to include the inspiration prompt "men standing like statues"...
How wonderful is this post?? I love it! Thanks very much for sharing this, I just know the hornblowers in Yorkshire and Meike will be well pleased!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kay, glad you liked it!
DeleteWhat great old photos. Isn't it wonderful to be transported back to a slower pace of life when the world was a different place~ Love it!!!
ReplyDeleteDiana, as always I get in a kind of shock when I start counting the years to work out how long ago it really was...!
DeleteI love this, Monica!! The year you saw the Hornblower in Ripon, I was six years old and very excited at the prospect of starting school after the summer.
ReplyDeleteWho could have guessed then that decades later, two women from different countries would know from each other's blog that each of them had a connection with this special tradition in yet another country.
I have written an addendum to my post, linking to yours.
DeleteThanks Meike! No, who would even have imagined such a thing as the internet back then... I was 18 going on 19, and had just graduated from secondary school (we left for England on the day after my graduation); and it was the last long holiday trip with the whole family (mum, dad, me and my brother).
Deletelove the pic and the story... his job was to guard the city and the horn said I am here. love it..
ReplyDeleteYou linked to the prompt picture twice, smart girl. Once with the hornblower tradition of blowing the horn at the four corners of the market cross, and with the wedding pic' of 'men standing like statues'. Well done - and fun! Interesting note: Not too far away from where I live in Calif. is a small town by the name of Ripon. I wonder how "Ripon" is pronounced in Yorkshire? Here, it's pronounced quickly as Ripin.
ReplyDeleteLa Nightingail, perhaps you'd better ask Meike (Librarian) who was there much more recently than I; but according to my Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary (also from 1974!) it's ['ripən]
DeleteThis is really cool! I am very glad they have kept the tradition. Now I wonder how the horn blower is chosen, and does he get paid for it. I love the picture you captured, it is priceless!
ReplyDeleteGinny, Meike's interview with the present hornblower may answer some of your questions.
DeleteYou brought back memories of when we had a short break in Ripon and we walked up to the Market Square to hear the Hornblower. .
ReplyDeleteOh, yet another person with Hornblower memories! What fun. On that journey back in 1974 our visit to Ripon was very short too. According to my notes in the photo album, we were staying at some hotel outside town and just went into Ripon in the evening for this experience. Strikes me now that I don't know how my parents knew about it. Either from some guide book or from info picked up along the way, I suppose.
DeleteHow great that you found the photo and know the exact date and TIME that you witnessed the horn blower.
ReplyDeleteKathy, I always made notes to accompany the photos in my old albums, and especially those from holiday trips - a habit inherited from my mum. (And I'm certainly glad of that now!) The time must have been 9 p.m. because that is when the horn is blown... But it's also confirmed by the clock on the Town Hall!
DeleteThe Ripon horn blower is a wonderful tradition. Back in 2011 I posted a story on a German family's holiday snapshots of the Ripon horn blower taken back in the 1920s or 30s. Might be the same horn.
ReplyDeletehttps://temposenzatempo.blogspot.com/2011/09/hornblower-of-ripon.html
Mike, thanks for that contribution. I visited the link and I'm impressed with the quality of those old photos. Old black & white photos really stand the test of time much better than the early colour pictures from the 1960s/70s...
DeleteIt's good you kept the photos, it's neat to be able to look back.
ReplyDeleteAmy, yes the old photo albums are a great help to remember the past. I often go back to them when something stirs my memory and I want to check when/where/who etc.
DeleteNice post. In these days of high tech and handheld devices, it's nice that Ripon has kept up the ancient tradition of horn blowing, which folks can probably set their digital watches by.
ReplyDeleteI agree, of course, that it's nice to see old traditions kept up. Although I suppose it could be argued that the horn is a handheld device as well! (...sorry, I just couldn't resist...)
DeleteThat's a nice picture, rather cosy and pleasant in a seventies sort of way! Doesn't he look smart? I came here after reading Meike's blog, but I would have come anyway in the end. I've never seen the Ripon Hornblower and wish i could.
ReplyDeleteJenny, one of the miracles of our present time and technology is that we're able to share images and experiences not only across the world but even across the layers of time! :)
DeleteThere is always so much of interest to be seen in old photos and yours is no exception. Apart from the principal reason for showing it the cars and fashions and even the shop fronts take me back to the year before I moved to Lewis.
ReplyDelete