Upcoming Events

Fun for all is in store at Ripon’s Workhouse Museum this weekend when you are invited to join the Master and Matron for their annual Tea Party – expect traditional stalls, games, stocks, trails and lots of fun – all with free entry! If you enjoy dressing up then come along in fancy dress and perhaps win a…

Workhouse Museum

Come to the Workhouse Museum and see our new main block building. The main block features the master and matron's quarters, inmates' kitchen, the dining room and the male and female dormitories. Over the summer we will opening the master's section, inmates' dining room and parts of the female wing to the public. Over the…

Location: Workhouse main block

Ever fancied having a go as an archaeologist? The Workhouse Museum will be getting out the trowels for a Victorian dig – where young visitors will be able to have a go at excavating in their large dig-box. Unearth different artefacts and see if you can tell whether the “body” is a Victorian or an Anglo-Saxon.  Then…

Workhouse Museum, Prison & Police Museum, Courthouse Museum

Join us at the Workhouse for an outdoor, bicycle-powered production of Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'! Rosalind and Orlando have been forced into exile in the Forest of Arden. As lovers, they become entangled in a bizarre game of lust, love and mistaken identity. In usual HandleBards style, expect riotous amounts of energy, a fair old whack…

Workhouse Museum

Enjoy a summer outing to the Workhouse...With traditional cakes & ale at the Workhouse Museum, a chance to enjoy baking cakes, brewing ginger beer and making butterflies…Most activities are included free with your ticket into the museum. Monday 31st July – Friday 4th August, 

Workhouse Museum

Cats, Rats & Detective Dogs! How were animals treated in the Workhouse? Come along to animal week to find out, there will be lots of fun activities exploring cats and rats at the Workhouse, as well as activities based around police dogs at the Prison & Police Museum. Most activities are included free with your ticket into the museum.…

Workhouse Museum, Prison and Police Museum

For all those children missing school there will be a chance to have a stern lesson in the new Victorian Schoolroom (twice daily) including a P.E. drill outside then Schools Out! Try out your aim and daring with Croquet, Hoopla and Skittles. Make a racket with the museum’s collection of noisy toys (Matron would NOT approve!) and…

Workhouse Museum

Visit the Georgian Courthouse Museum for the trial of three pickpockets from 1856. Three girls aged 12, 13 and 14 were caught stealing from shops and pickpocketing – just like the Artful Dodgers gang from Oliver Twist. Take part in the trial and be sent for punishment, just like the three girls who didn’t manage to dodge justice. The pop along to…

Workhouse Museum

This is the perfect time for picking vegetables and preserving them. Try your hand at pickling and preserving fruit and vegetables from the Workhouse Garden. Find out about the piglets in the piggery that the Workhouse boys looked after - and best of all, take home your own pickle. Most activities are included free with your ticket into the…

Workhouse Museum

Discover the punishments of the past with family activities. Have a go at the cranking machine in the Prison and Police Museum, learn more about stone breaking duties in the Workhouse and the harsh sentences doled out in the Courthouse. Not quite the 'Good Old Days!'