Events

Christmas Day in the Workhouse

Join the Guardians, Staff and Inmates to enjoy the Mayor's Christmas festivities based on real events of 1892.Ripon Workhouse Museum invites you to step back in time with us to the year 1890 and join us as we open our doors for ‘Christmas Day in Workhouse’, now a firm favourite on the museum calendar. The event is based on the Ripon Gazette reports of the time, detailing the Mayor’s annual treat for the poor inmates.

We have been decking the halls and scrubbing the floors ready for this special day when the old workhouse will bustle with the sights, smells and sounds of the past.  As you walk the corridors you will meet some of the real life characters of the workhouse itself: disgruntled inmates, pompous guardians, strict school mistresses, bossy matrons and even a drunken vagrant with a hidden past as life is breathed once again into the cells, corridors and work yard of this wonderful building.

You will have chance to talk to the inmates to see how the poor lived and learn what it was like to spend your day oakum picking, breaking stones, doing laundry and scrubbing.  The guardians will tell you about their last inspection, their views of the inmates and their new pride and joy, a hot water system! 

Refreshments will be served and performances of music hall songs, Victorian music and Christmas carols will be provided by ‘Marking time’ throughout the day.
 

Children FREE, Adults £3.

FREE activities.

For more information contact Ripon Museum office by phone on 01765 690799 or by email on info@riponmuseums.co.uk