Memory Lane – Day Three in North Yorkshire

Today was my first full day in Ripon. Decided to put my feet to work and visit some of the old haunts. Walked around the city center (yes, despite a population of only 15,000, Ripon is a city by royal charter), up Quarry Moor Lane to our old houses, down the Harrogate Road, past the Lead Lane chippy, by the Grammar School.

For having been away 26 years, Ripon hasn’t changed all that much. The old railway station and viaduct have gone, replaced by the new (for me) bypass road. There’s actually a McDonalds, on the Harrogate Road near where the new bypass splits off. There are now three supermarkets. Not sure how a city of 15,000 can support that. And there’s a new road in the city center that goes up behind Abbott's (now closed but that’s another story).

Sadly, there seem to be quite a few businesses and buildings on North Street that are closed or for sale. Not really sure if that is any indicator as to the health of Ripon, but the city center was certainly very busy.

In the age of the supermarket, particularly now that there’s three, it was pleasantly surprising to note that Ripon has two butcher shops in the city center. One thing I noticed is the large number of small shops that seemed to sell a bit of everything, tools, cookware, small electronics, bikes. It seems hard to see how differentiate your business with such small real estate. It’s one thing if you’re Target or Walmart to sell everything, but your average American Target store is a couple times the size of Ripon’s market square.

Another thing I noticed is how most of the old banks are still in existence and still in their same locations. I don’t know that there are any original banks left in Boston in the last 10 years, never mind 26. I mean, if you count the latest TD Bank name change, the new Boston Garden, opened in 1995, has been sponsored by four different bank names.

On Stuart Borchard’s recommendation I checked out the One Eyed Rat as an alternative to The Black Bull for our get together. Wise move. Six taps of cask conditioned, hand pulled ales. There was a chalk menu board on the back with the current list. Now having six casks did concern me about it’s freshness, but on Friday the board was almost completely different, indicating a pretty good turnover.

I started with a Black Sheep, but was quickly turned by Scotsman, farmer, truck driver, and most importantly, beer aficionado, Malcolm to some of the stronger varieties available.

Malcolm was a bit of a character. He owns a 300 acre farm, but when prices dropped in half, he had to pick up a day job driving a truck and hiring someone to farm for him.

Not only did Malcolm steer me towards the stronger pints, but then proceed to order another round each time he was done. Needless to say, I was a bit on the tipsy side wandering back to my bed and breakfast. On top of that, I hadn’t had any dinner as I’d intended to eat at whatever pub I ended up at. The One Eyed Rat, of course, being the only pub that didn’t have a menu. On top of that, once I’d left, all the chippies were closed.