Hornblower

An outing with the camera club this evening yielded several interesting shots, one of which was of this chap, the Ripon hornblower.

A hornblower has sounded the horn in the market place at 9 p.m. every night for the last 1127 years (since 886 AD). I had a brief chat with the current hornblower afterwards. he has been doing the job for 13 years and has been out in all weathers, including a foot or more of snow on the ground with -12C temperatures, when those people watching "always seem to ask more questions!"

The following text is taken from the Hornblower website:

"My role as Ripon City Hornblower is to support the Mayor of the day in all his/her civic duties and above all else to safeguard the continuity of the ancient ceremony of 'Setting the Watch' which has been carried out every evening on the market square without a miss, not for one single day, for 1127 years. It is the longest ongoing unbroken daily ceremony in the world :

'Setting the Watch' dates back to the year 886 when Alfred the Great visited the City in those unsettled and troubled Viking times, and was so impressed by the place itself and the support he was given by the people against the intruders that he decided to grant the community a Royal Charter. As it was a spontanious decision he did not have a parchment scroll or anything of that prepared. All he had to offer them as a symbol of the Charter was a horn. He told them that they should treasure the horn and look after it for ever, and the people did. It is still in safe keeping in the City Town Hall today"