Crypt

Some oddities about Ripon Cathedral. I took this photo in the crypt below. Here's how one website describes it:

"Built in 672 by Saint Wilfrid, Ripon Cathedral’s Crypt predates England itself by 255 years, and it’s still accepting pilgrims and visitors today.

Accessed by steep and narrow steps, a claustrophobic and gloomy passageway winds underneath a medieval cathedral. This cramped tunnel leads to a white painted void, believed by its creators to be a faithful representation of Jesus’s modest tomb.

With an arched ceiling, a simple altar, and a 14th-century alabaster carving of the resurrection, the otherwise chilly emptiness of this simple whitewashed crypt disguises its rich historical significance.

Ripon's crypt, and the long-vanished basilica it was originally built beneath, were the first of their kind to be built in the Kingdom of Northumbria, a territory that once covered most of Northern England and part of Southern Scotland."

Ripon

Another reason to eat lunch at the Royal Oak is that it is literally around the corner from the cathedral where I was headed next for rehearsal. We had so many rehearsals because the choir sang different music for each performance. In fact, most of us traveled with separate bags for the sole purpose of carrying our music and choir robes. Also, each cathedral or chapel had its own unique acoustics and physical space, requiring us to quickly settle in and adjust to the new circumstances.

The Royal Oak

So the story behind I found myself eating at The Royal Oak in Ripon begins with the dinner I enjoyed the night before in Harrogate. There the waiter, learning that I was to sing the next day at Ripon Cathedral, heartily recommended that I grab lunch here. He was right. It was a great place to eat. Plus I was welcomed there by a very cordial and, I must say, quite accommodating canine maître d'. :-)

Meat Pies

 

 

Appleton's in Ripon. Reminded me of the "meat pies" I ate as a kid living in England not far from here.