| Where: | Ripon, North Yorkshire - Market Place |
| When: | Every day |
| Time: | 9pm |
For hundreds of years, the Wakeman of Ripon has blown his horn daily in the Market Place. He dresses in a uniform with tricorn hat and blows three blasts at each corner of the obelisk at 9pm every day of the year. Originally the Wakeman was appointed by the church to keep the peace (a sort of early policeman) but now he is appointed by the Mayor of the town and can be seen performing his civic duties at other local events like the St Wilfrid Feast in July. He gives an entertaining history of the custom when his duties are done for the day, and on days when the Mayor isn’t at home the Wakeman also blows his horn at the Town Hall steps opposite the obelisk.
Helpful Hints
Look out for the original Wakeman’s House in the Market Place; the horn is kept in the nearby Town Hall when not in use. The obelisk has a horn weathervane on top. You may be given a wooden penny for luck at the end of the ceremony – if the Hornblower is short of supplies you can buy one by post.
Click here to find out more : http://www.visitripon.org/history/customs___traditions.html
A a wartime evacuee in 1939 I lived for a few months next door to the ‘Hornblower’, he was a ‘Council employee who had got the job in a competition with others after the earlier one retired.
He lived on the Quarry Moor ‘Council Estate and a couple of us Leeds Tech’ students would walk down to the town at night and then watch him…..he got called the Watchman sometimes.
He was an ordinary hard working ‘Council guy with a boiler suit who changed into a really fancy medieval fancy dress to do his stuff.
I spent 4 years at the Ripon campus of the College of Ripon and York St John in the mid to late 1980s and I seem to recollect that, during one of our ‘Rag Weeks’, the Wakeman was ‘abducted’ by some of the students and held to ransom. The money raised from this escapade was donated to charity and, naturally, the Wakeman was returned completely unscathed from his ‘ordeal’. Fortunately, he was not only dedicated to his job but also blessed with a good sense of humour!
Let’s hope his mental scars have long since faded 🙂