The Wakeman's House and Market Square

Ripon's market square is one of the most handsome in the north of England, flanked by Georgian townhouses and dominated by a tall obelisk erected in 1781. The Wakeman's House, on the corner of the square, is a late medieval timber-framed building that houses a small museum about the history of the city and the horn-blowing ceremony. It is one of the oldest domestic buildings still standing in Ripon.

The square comes alive on Thursday mornings with a traditional market, and the Saturday market is one of the larger ones in the area. The nine o'clock horn-blowing ceremony is genuinely atmospheric on a quiet weekday evening — this is not a tourist performance staged for visitors but a ritual that the city has simply never stopped observing.

things to do sight
A story
Every evening at 9 p.m., a hornblower in historical costume sounds a horn at each corner of the market square obelisk — a ceremony that has taken place continuously for over a thousand years. The original Wakeman was responsible for keeping the night watch; any citizen who was robbed between the sounding of the horn and dawn could claim compensation. The tradition has continued unbroken through wars, plague, and industrial revolution.