Workhouse brought back to life after refurbishment

A museum has promised that visitors will be able to authentically experience the lives of Victorian paupers after a major refurbishment.

Ripon Workhouse Museum was given a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to conserve and restore its Grade II-listed building.

As well as fixing a leaky roof and rotten windows, the museum has revamped rooms and opened up the original workhouse cellar for the first time since 1930.

Visitors will be able to listen to the sounds of the workhouse, be shut in a vagrants' cell and dress in 19th Century uniforms.

Alexa Vernon, director of Ripon Museums Trust, explained the building had been in need a lot of care and attention and the money came "at just the right time".

As part of the project, the museum has introduced sound effects in some of the rooms, such as the kitchen, the washroom and dining hall.

"It really brings the place to life," Vernon said.

"In the cells you can hear people groaning and coughing, in the kitchen you can hear the bustle.

"This is a really evocative place and the sounds add another dimension."

Nick Baird, who is a former teacher, has been volunteering at the workhouse for almost 10 years.

He does lots of different roles across the trust but takes the part of a Victorian workhouse teacher when school parties visit the museum.

Baird said: "As a retired teacher I enjoy dealing with children on a day-to-day basis, they enjoy the activities and they learn in a fun way.

"I tend to be quite fierce for the first few minutes but I can't keep it up.

"I drop that act but it is important that they learn that's how it would have been and that they were expected to be silent at all times and march along in single file, especially in a workhouse situation.

"Discipline was very strict and it wasn't a desperately pleasant environment for them."

Dr Laura Allan, museum curator, said the newly-opened cellar was particularly exciting.

"It's the only part of that building that had been untouched since it was turned into council offices," she added.

"It has the massive original meat block table where the workhouse pigs would be butchered, and a trough and sink.

"It's like glimpsing behind the curtain, seeing how it truly was."

The workhouse was built in 1854 and was in institutional use until the founding of the NHS in the 1940s, after which it became a care home for the elderly and council offices.

Ripon Museums Trust acquired it in 2017 and launched the wider £3.3m Inspiration for a Fairer Future project.

The scheme included heritage conservation, new interpretation, youth engagement and learning activities designed to inspire reflection on contemporary social issues.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.