We’re trying out a few different walks to our local shops and discovering a few things along the way. Ripon is a city of bridges .... lots of them. This one leads onto Priest Lane. 

And we wandered past the temporary home of Wilfred Owen who was stationed for a time in the army camp in Ripon. He wrote whilst there. Lewis Carroll lived in Ripon for a while, his father was a Canon of the Cathedral. And the third home we noticed was that of Naomi Jacob, novelist and actor, the cropped-haired, monocle-wearing entertainer of troops and successful author of 70 novels. Both she and her family were remarkable. Her father was the son of a Jewish refugee from Prussia and served as headmaster of Ripon Grammar School, where her mother also taught. Her grandfather was a mayor of the town and owner of the Unicorn Hotel and her great-grandfather Thomas was the second chief police officer in the town. 

Many thanks to Ripon Civic Society for information plaques around the city.