Settlement and Monasticism at Ripon, North Yorkshire, From the 7th to 11th Centuries A.D.

Abstract

Archaeological investigations of a number of small sites, combined with information provided by antiquarian writers, indicate the existence of a number of churches and/or cemeteries in the vicinity of Ripon Cathedral. In two cases these demonstrably originate in the 8th century or earlier, and in the other, less well documented instances an early origin seems likely. It is suggested that these sites are early ecclesiastical nuclei associated with the known 7th.-century monastery at Ripon, and a tentative reconstruction of the original monastic enclosure is proposed on the basis of archaeological, antiquarian and cartographic evidence.