Visitors from all over Yorkshire and beyond attended the Ripon Cathedral Christmas Gift and Food Fair.
£23,000 was raised towards the, the Appeal to raise £5 million towards the Dean’s Development Plans for a 21st Century Cathedral.
One hundred stalls of seasonal gifts and food were on display in the Cathedral and also at The Old Deanery. A seasonal atmosphere was created by various local musical groups who volunteered to entertain the crowds the Skelldale Singers, Ripon Trinity Choir, Collavoce, Lilly Worth, Vocal Expressions, Eurythmia Ensemble, Charlotte Krier Knot Another Choir.
Many children visited Santa’s Grotto. Hundreds of turkey sandwiches were served and cups of tea, coffee and mulled wine were provided by the fantastic Cathedral volunteers. Children’s craft activities, face painting, raffle, a tombola and home-made Christmas cakes were also attractions at the event.
Margaret Hammond, the Development Campaign Manager said:
The event marks the start of the Christmas celebrations for the local community, it is wonderful to see so many families both inside the Cathedral and also shopping in the city. The Christmas Light Switch On also took place on the Market Square which attracted a large number of families and visitors to Ripon.
The event could not take place without the help of so many volunteers, and we are truly grateful to everyone who helped on the day.
The Dean raised a record £1,100 selling raffle tickets and the volunteers including the Dean’s brother in law, who baked so many wonderful Christmas Cakes, to the volunteers who helped on the day. Local Ripon businesses, Hemingway’s, Cocked Hat Farm Foods, the Old Deanery. The soldiers from Claro Barracks who helped set up the event and a group of former employees from the Ripon office of Wolseley UK. Everyone worked so hard and helped in so many different ways to make sure the event was a huge success.
This year saw the introduction of the park and ride. Wolseley kindly gave the Cathedral the use of their main car park to assist with alleviating the car parking spaces in the town. Atkinsons coaches brought the visitors up to the Cathedral to drop off and to also return them to the car park later in the day. This was hailed a great success.
