The famous Ripon Hornblower on Yorkshire Day. Photo credit: Helen Tabor
Ripon launches its UK Town of Culture 2028 bid, celebrating its heritage, landscape and community with a bold vision for a culture-led future.
With a cathedral older than many nations and a cultural landscape including a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ripon has launched its bid for UK Town of Culture 2028.
Officially a city but home to just 17,000 people, Ripon is embracing its scale with the theme “Small City, Big Landscape.” Set at the meeting point of three rivers, the city combines its unbroken civic life stretching back over a millennium with a distinctive rural setting.
“Small City, Big Landscape” Ripon Cathedral in Autumn 2025 Photo credit: Gary Lawson
At the heart of the bid is the idea of “pilgrimage” – a unifying theme of journey, discovery, connection, growth, and healing – shaping a year-long, place-based cultural programme. Pilgrimage also encompasses the idea of Ripon’s close connection to its hinterland, and this bid led by the Uredale Community Partnership reflects that connection.
Charlie Studdy from the Culture and Green Space Working Group for the Uredale Community Partnership and a volunteer for Ripon Theatre Festival helped bring partners together across the city.
Charlie said: “Ripon has been a place of pilgrimage since 672 AD. In 2028, we want it to be one again – this time for culture. Our vision is to build on Ripon’s unique, ancient foundations to create a sustainable, culture-led future, using the all-encompassing idea of pilgrimage.”
Pilgrimage has deep roots in Ripon. The 7th-century crypt of St Wilfrid at Ripon Cathedral drew early visitors, a tradition that continues today with the annual Boxing Day pilgrimage to Fountains Abbey. St Wilfrid’s Procession, held each summer, celebrates the city’s founder.
Ripon’s heritage is equally evident in its daily life. Its Market Place has been a centre of trade for its community and surrounding villages for centuries, while the Hornblower ceremony – dating back to 886 AD – continues nightly, making it one of the longest-running civic traditions in the world.
The national competition aims to spotlight under-recognised towns, with £3 million awarded to the winner and £250,000 for two finalists.
Ripon’s bid also highlights its cultural richness and its wider impact outside the city. The city’s historic environment is linked to figures including Lewis Carroll and Wilfred Owen, while landscapes such as Fountains Abbey, Hackfall Woods and the Ripon Canal continue to inspire artists today. Its creative identity extends from traditional baking – Wilfrid Tarts date back to at least 1108 – to contemporary community projects like the nationally recognised Ripon Community Poppy Project.
Charlie added: “Across Europe, pilgrimage routes like the Camino de Santiago attract millions. Today, people are seeking connection more than ever – whether through nature, creativity, or shared experience. Culture and the outdoors can play a powerful role in tackling isolation and supporting wellbeing. We want to reimagine pilgrimage as something modern, inclusive, and transformative.”
The programme will be designed to connect Ripon’s city centre with the dale communities along the River Ure, from Masham through to Bishop Monkton and Langthorpe. Rather than concentrating activity in a single venue or centre, the bid reflects the way people across the Uredale area actually live, move and connect, linking city to countryside and placing rural communities at the heart of the cultural offer, not at its edges. It is this geography that defines the Uredale Community Partnership, and that gives the bid its distinctive character as something genuinely place-wide rather than city-centred.
The Dean of Ripon, The Very Reverend John Dobson, chair of the Uredale Community Partnership, said: “Ripon has always been at the heart of a wider rural area and has an impact far beyond the city boundaries. It is wonderful that the Uredale Community Partnership has been the catalyst for this bid and has been able to bring together so many committed partners across the area.” Partners involved in the bid include Ripon Together, Ripon BID, Ripon Theatre Festival, Ripon Cathedral, Ripon YMCA, Ripon Disability Forum, Ripon Civic Society and Ripon Arts Hub, alongside community groups spanning the Ure valley from Masham to the villages of Bishop Monkton and Langthorpe.
The audience at the Ripon Theatre Festival 2026 launch event on Friday 27 March were the first to hear that Ripon is formally bidding for UK Town of Culture 2028. Photo credit: Ben Colson
Lilla Bathurst, Manager at Ripon BID, said: “Ripon captures hearts with its heritage, community spirit, and countryside, but it is often overshadowed by larger neighbours such as Harrogate and York. This is a major opportunity to invest in a sustainable, culture-led future and raise Ripon’s profile nationally.”
The bid draws on fresh, community-rooted evidence. The Ripon City Investment Plan stakeholder engagement, completed in early 2026, identified culture, heritage, and creative infrastructure as consistent priorities across businesses, residents, and organisations alike. This was reinforced by a recent workshop convened by Uredale Community Partnership’s Culture and Green Space Working Group, which brought together local organisations to shape the vision and identify priorities.
Kate Sharpe, Trustee for Ripon Disability Forum added: “This approach is inclusive by design – from family-friendly and accessible trails to creative experiences that can be brought indoors for those unable to travel. Whether through walking, storytelling, music or art, pilgrimage can be something everyone takes part in. It may sound simple, but connection like this is powerful.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Read more on Ripon’s bid for UK Town of Culture status: UK Town of Culture 2028 – Ripon Together
Media Enquiries:
Ann Chadwick, Cause UK
Telephone: 0753 194 8014
Email: info@causeuk.com
About Uredale Community Partnership
The Uredale Community Partnership is the non-statutory partnership for Ripon and its rural hinterland established in 2024 as a North Yorkshire Council pilot, following local authority restructure. UCP brings together local councils, elected representatives, community organisations, businesses, cultural partners and other stakeholders, and provides the partnership structure through which this bid has been shaped.
For more information visit: www.uredalecp.com.
All images on this website are used under licence or with appropriate permission. No rights are granted, and no permission to copy, reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use these images is given or implied.