Ripon's hornblowers return to city after 16 months

Keep your blower on you: A team of four hornblowers is tasked with wielding the impressive instrument

After 16 months spent blowing the horn at home, practitioners of an ancient tradition are to return to the streets of a North Yorkshire city.

Hornblowers have been performing their nightly duties in Ripon, near York, for more than 1,000 years.

But its trio of tricorn hat-clad tooters have been broadcasting from their back gardens since last March.

A special ceremony will herald the return of hornblowing and the arrival of the troupe's fourth member.

Known as "setting the watch", the noisy ritual usually takes place around Ripon's Market Square.

Before the pandemic, one of the hornblowers would give their instrument a blast at each corner of the city's obelisk before regaling a rapt audience of up to 90 people with a short history of the area.

They would then walk to the mayor's residence to let him know the night watch had been set.

The tradition is said to date back to 886 AD, when Saxon king Alfred the Great gave Ripon a horn after granting the city a Royal Charter.

His gift led to the appointment of a wakeman - who would patrol the settlement at night and sound the alarm if he saw a potential threat.

The tradition is said to date back to Alfred the Great, who urged people to be vigilant and gave a horn to the city as a symbol of it being granted a Royal Charter

Since the first UK-wide lockdown in March 2020, hornblowers Wayne Corbett, Richard Midgely and Allison Clark have performed the ceremony at home.

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"We've missed seeing people and doing the ceremony proper," said Ms Clark - the first ever female hornblower, appointed in 2017.

"We've been working from home, ensuring the tradition is maintained, setting the watch from our individual back gardens and posting it live on Facebook.

"We've had a lovely little following of loyal people who have watched us every night online and given us lots of encouragement and support."

Ms Clark said she was "very excited" to return to seeing people "in the flesh".

The pandemic interruption is the first time the tradition has faced such disruption since World War Two, when it was moved to earlier in the evening due to the blackout.