Ripon's hornblower tribute coins on a global journey

Coins created to pay tribute to a former Ripon hornblower are making their way around the world

People have paid tribute to a former North Yorkshire hornblower by sending photographs from around the world of wooden coins he gave out to visitors.

George Pickles, who died last year, gave out 35,000 of the souvenirs during his 12-year tenure as Ripon hornblower.

His deputy, Geno Boarman, said he had since given out a further 1,000 new tribute coins in Mr Pickles' memory.

Mr Boarman said people from seven different countries had so far sent pictures of themselves with the coins.

George Pickles was the last person to hold the solo post of hornblower in Ripon

Mr Boarman, who served as deputy to Mr Pickles from 2004 to 2010, explained that he and Mr Pickles had began the tradition of offering small wooden coins to spectators of the ancient ceremony, which they called the Hornblower's Lucky Wooden Penny.

"After he died there had to be a way for me to say a proper goodbye to George and to say thank you to him for everything he did for me," he said.

"So working with his family we came up with George's Lucky Penny.

"I wanted to continue to pay tribute to George's memory as well to his family."

Geno Boarman worked with the family of Mr Pickles to create a wooden coin in tribute to him following his death

A horn has been sounded four times in Ripon's Market Square every night at 21:00 since AD886 to "set the watch".

It is blown at each of the four corners of the obelisk in the Market Square and then three times outside the mayor's house, an event which often attracts a crowd of spectators and is popular with tourists.

The tradition is said to have begun following a visit to the city by Alfred the Great who urged residents to be more vigilant and gave a horn to the city as a symbol of it being granted a Royal Charter.

Pictures of the tribute coin have been sent to Mr Boarman by people taking the souvenir with them on their travels

Mr Boarman, who was only the second American to serve as a deputy hornblower, said so far he had seen photos of the wooden souvenirs taken in 17 different US states, as well as in Ireland, Spain, England and Romania.

Although he now lives back in America he said being a hornblower in Ripon had been"one of the greatest experiences of my life, it was an amazing time".

Reflecting on his tribute to Mr Pickles he said: "George was a lovely man, he was wonderful. He would be very humble about the tribute if he knew, but he would have loved it."

He added: "If anyone has any of the pennies they can join in the tribute by taking the coin with them when they travel and taking a picture of it."