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Ripon Museum Trust is pleased to announce that the Workhouse Museum Gardens will reopen from Thursday 15 April, with a family-friendly trail to guide visitors around the site. The Trust’s three museums – the Workhouse Museum, Prison & Police Museum and Courthouse Museum – will reopen fully in line with the Government guidance from Monday 17 May. From Thursday 15 April,…

Ripon Museum Trust has received a grant of £69,350 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country in the latest round of support from the Culture Recovery Fund, the Culture Secretary announced…

Elizabeth Mudd lived in a house on Allhallowgate in Ripon with her four children. Her husband was born in the area, but left home to join the Royal Engineers in London, before the two married in 1873. The family was moved around often by the army. Her oldest son, William, was born in Medway Kent in 1874, his brother Thomas was born…

After the success of their Christmas 2020 lighting display, which ran throughout the festive period, Ripon Museum Trust are again lighting up the Workhouse Museum with a new display that celebrates the city’s past. Entitled Serving Our Community – Images from Ripon’s Past, the new display uses historic photographs from the Ripon Re-Viewed collection, which will be…

A poorhouse has stood on Allhallowgate in Ripon since 1776, replaced by the larger union workhouse in 1854. With the introduction of the Welfare State in the late 1940s, changes were made at the workhouse that gave it a more hospitable feel and it was renamed Sharow View. By then it had become an old people’s home which survived till…

Pop down to the Workhouse Museum to enjoy a special seasonal lighting display illuminating the front of the historic building, which will run from 5.30pm to 9.30pm each evening over the Christmas period. Ripon Museum Trust, working with locally based audio-visual and lighting specialists Fusion LX, have created a festive feel to the front of the building. Helen Thornton, Director…

Ripon Museum Trust volunteers from The Workhouse Museum have worked on a major new online exhibition presented by The Workhouse Network called More Than Oliver Twist and presented on the Google Arts & Culture platform. The More Than Oliver Twist project set out to discover the real stories of people in the workhouse system through the 1881 census returns. Researched and…

In June 2020, Ripon Museum Trust was fortunate to receive a Heritage Emergency Fund grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The projects this grant supported have been completed successfully at the end of October 2020. The grant provided vital support through the most challenging of times during Lockdown #1 and then as restrictions relaxed and we were able to re-open. We were…

Ripon Museum Trust has been awarded £117,500 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary has announced today. Ripon Museum Trust is one of 1,385 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support. …

We are delighted to be able to welcome visitors back to Ripon Museums. The Workhouse Museum & Garden and the Prison & Police Museum will both open on Wednesday 15th July. It is planned to reopen the Courthouse Museum on 1st August. Helen Thornton, Director of Ripon Museum Trust said "I am so excited to be able to offer…