Take a stroll in the labyrinthine ‘grand gardens in miniature’ now restored to their Victorian heyday. Enjoy the garden vistas and discover enchanting features like the pleasure grounds with their fountain centrepiece or the classical summerhouse or the fern dell and pet cemetery.

With snowdrops and winter evergreens, spring tulips and laburnum and summer roses and autumnal leaves, the gardens are open year-round with an ever-changing colour palette.

The magnificent keep at Conisbrough Castle is one of South Yorkshire’s most striking landmarks. The castle was the centre of a great Norman lordship, given by William the Conqueror to William de Warenne. The keep was probably built in the 1170s or 1180s. Escaping damage in the Civil War, it became a picturesque ruin in the 18th and 19th centuries, and inspired Sir Walter Scott’s most famous novel, Ivanhoe, published in 1819.

Bebra Gardens is a small, attractive park close to Knaresborough Castle.

This hidden gem, which provides a haven from the hustle and bustle of the town centre is named in honour of the town’s links with Bebra, Germany.

The gardens are on a steep slope and there are sloping, meandering pathways leading through mature trees and conifers. The paths lead to the paddling pool at the lowest point and onto Waterside below.

The memorial commemorates the residents of Knaresborough who were killed or missing in World War I (155 names) and World War II (54 names).

Dan May

The viaduct connects Knaresborough with Harrogate on the Harrogate line, in North Yorkshire, England.^[8] The line was built in 1848 with the Leeds and Thirsk Railway creating a branch from their line at Starbeck railway station to go through Knaresborough and connect with the line that was being built westwards from York as part of the East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway.^[9] Just as the viaduct had been almost completed, it collapsed into the River Nidd on 11 March 1848.^[10] The resultant noise of the falling masonry was said to have lasted for five minutes. Whilst there was no official inquiry, it is believed that the collapse of the viaduct was down to a combination of bad workmanship, poor materials and excess water in the swollen river below as a result of heavy rain over a period of two months.^[11] Despite the collapse, the centre span was still in-situ and had to be demolished before work could start again on a replacement viaduct.^[12]

There has been a castle in Knaresborough for over 900 years. Over the centuries there have been significant periods of building and repair work as the castle was adapted to meet changing military requirements, fashions and historic events.

The early castle
We know very little about the castle’s origins but there may have been an Anglo-Saxon fortification in ‘Chednaresburg’. Burg is an Old English word for a defended enclosure, and could refer to a bank and ditch surrounding a settlement here.

The earliest castle was built by the Normans who recognised the superb natural defences of this rocky promontory high above the river Nidd. We find the first written evidence of a castle in Knaresborough in financial records called the Pipe Rolls dating from the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). These show that £11 was spent in 1129-1130 on strengthening the ‘King’ Works at Knaresborough’ by custodian Eustace Fitz-John.

Some years later, the castle played a part in one of the more infamous stories of the medieval period. In 1170 the Constable of Knaresborough Castle Hugh de Morville and his followers took refuge there after they had murdered Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid, commonly known as Ripon Cathedral, and until 1836 known as Ripon Minster, is a cathedral in the North Yorkshire city of Ripon. Founded as a monastery by Scottish monks in the 660s, it was refounded as a Benedictine monastery by St Wilfrid in 672. The church became collegiate in the tenth century, and acted as a mother church within the large Diocese of York for the remainder of the Middle Ages.^[2] The present church is the fourth, and was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. In 1836 the church became the cathedral for the Diocese of Ripon.^[3] In 2014 the Diocese was incorporated into the new Diocese of Leeds, and the church became one of three co-equal cathedrals of the Bishop of Leeds.

The cathedral is notable architecturally for its gothic west front in the Early English style, considered one of the best of its type, as well as the Geometric east window.^[3] The seventh-century crypt of Wilfrid’s church is a significant example of early Christian architecture in England.^[3] The cathedral has Grade I listed building status.

The medieval cross base, known as the ‘Weeping Cross’, would appear to be a unique survivor of many such crosses in England. The place name ‘Weeping Cross’ still exists in Stafford, Banbury and Shrewsbury but no physical evidence remains. The age of this ancient and venerable relic is not known. It is certainly as old as the church, and perhaps much older if it was brought from  the ’sinking chapel’ site. There is no cross now, but the socket where it fitted is clearly seen in the top of the upper stone. Iconoclasts may have removed the original cross (possibly a crucifix) at the time of the Reformation.

The manner of which the ‘Weeping Cross’ was used has been a subject of considerable debate among antiquarians. The Shrewsbury cross is known to have been the focus of a procession of the Blessed Sacrament by the monastic and secular clergy on the Festival of Corpus Christi, before the celebrations of the Holy Eucharist took place at one of the neighbouring churches. After the Reformation, the festival became secular and later an annual fair. The Ripley cross being located close to a church may have had a similar role in pre-Reformation times. The eight recesses, most likely for the head of kneeling devotees, would tend to support the idea of such group usage.

The term ‘weeping cross’ also seems to  indicate the expression of grief, remorse or repentance. This may relate to the death of Christ and the Festival of Corpus Christi. However the public expression of such emotions in atonement for sins or crimes was not uncommon in medieval times and may be an alternative explanation. *

Since the leaflet was written a simply wooden cross has been placed has been placed on top of the stone.

*Information from a church leaflet – A Short History of  All Saints’ Church Ripley