The Platinum Jubilee Horn will be presented to the City at 8:45pm on Saturday evening, 4 th June 2022, Ripon Market Place.
It will be presented to Cllr Sid Hawke, the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Ripon by
Mr John Richmond BEM, Honorary Freeman of the City of Ripon, former Mayor of Ripon and
former Hornblower of the City.
It was commissioned by Ripon City Council and made by Duncan Grimmond, a locally based
craftsman who has made several horns for the Council over the last four decades.
Mark Sidwell, Musical Director of Ripon City Band, kindly advised Duncan in the process of making the horn.
The silver mountings include the Commemorative Jubilee Hallmark.
The inscription reads Presented by Ripon City Council to the City of Ripon on the occasion of
HM Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee – June 2022
The Ripon Hornblowing tradition dates back to Saxon times when Viking raids were common occurrences and people lived in fear of night-time attacks.
In 886, the English King was Alfred the Great and he made it his mission to visit his people bringing a message of safety and stability. In Ripon he granted the people a Royal Charter and gave them a symbolic horn as a gift, advising them that they should be always alert to the dangers of invaders.
The people of Ripon decided to employ a night watchman that they called a “wakemen” to patrol from dusk until dawn ready to sound the horn.
For further reassurance, the wakeman sounded the horn at each of the four corners of the market place at 9pm every night to let the people know that he was on duty and they could sleep easily.
That ritual is still carried out at nine o’clock every night at the Obelisk in Ripon market square by the current hornblowers and has not been missed, not for a single night, in over 1100 years.
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