The Trust

Ripon Museum Trust Mission Statement

Our mission is to enrich the lives of all who experience and are inspired by our historic law & order sites and collections so that they gain insights into, and are provoked into thinking about, how the treatment of offenders and the relief of the poor have developed over the last 200 years. We will be a model of the ways in which the past is used to create a deeper, more compassionate and more equitable society. We also want to enhance substantially Ripon’s sense of place and to improve the well-being of our volunteers and our local community.

Ripon Museum Trust Vision

Our Vision is to be the most engaging and admired small museum in the country delivering our mission with pride and integrity.

How we began

The RIPON CIVIC SOCIETY from its inception in 1968 had been concerned at the lack of museum coverage in the City which has resulted from the closure of the City Museum at Thorpe Prebend House in 1956.  This was to be made worse by the closure of the Wakeman’s House Museum in 1987.  The Society had continued to press the Local Authorities to provide premises for another museum.

In 1981 the Old Liberty Prison (built in 1816) became vacant and it was decided to set up the Ripon Museum Trust with the intention of opening up the Ripon Prison and Police Museum there.  Ripon Museum Trust was granted chartable status in 1982.

Progress of the Trust:

• The Prison and Police Museum was opened in 1984
• In 1994 the Trust obtained a lease for the former Vagrant’s Cell Block at the old Workhouse in Allhallowgate and opened the Workhouse Museum there in 1996.
• In 2000 the Trust opened up the old No. 1 Court in the court building which had closed in 1998 as the Courthouse Museum.
• In 2010 the Workhouse Garden was restored and opened to the public
• In 2017 the Trust secured the main block of the Workhouse and opened parts of it during the year to expand the Workhouse Museum