Minster House

Minster House is an early 18th-century building located on Bedern Bank in Ripon. It is marked on a plan by Thomas Parker in Thomas Gent's "History of Ripon" from 1733. The house is constructed of red brick with ashlar quoins. It has two storeys and a parapet, with a band running around the facade. The south front has seven bays, the west front five bays, and the east front two slightly projecting bays. The windows are sash windows with glazing bars and moulded sills. The central doorway on the south front features a broken stone pediment enclosing the shield of arms of the Oxley family, who were the property’s owners in the 19th century.

The interior contains a particularly fine staircase that wraps around three sides of a large, oblong stairwell. The stairwell has a moulded plaster ceiling and a modillioned cornice. The staircase has three balusters on each tread: one turned, one spiral fluted, and one a double spiral. A spiral curtail is featured with a fluted newel, and fielded panels are positioned under each tread. There is fielded panelling to dado height, ramping up to fluted columnar muntins. Semi-circular arches lead to the hall and the landing above, with the latter flanked by a fluted lower half-column supporting a full entablature.

The hall features four doorcases with moulded architraves and pediments. The rooms are all panelled, with some fielded, some bolection, and one room featuring giant fluted pilasters. Contemporary chimney-pieces are present, two of which are flanked by giant fluted Corinthian columns supporting a full and enriched entablature. One room contains re-used 16th and 17th-century wainscotting, purported to have originated from Markington Hall. Another room is “wainscotted” with a particularly fine Victorian scrap screen.

The building stands on or near the site of the Bedern, which was the domestic accommodation of the College of Vicars, established in 1414 and dissolved in 1547. Vicars were appointed from 1303 to serve both the Collegiate Church and the parish church. Archbishop Sandys attempted unsuccessfully to use the Bedern to establish a Theological College. While the builder of Minster House is unknown, it has served as the Deanery since 1945, having previously been in private hands for approximately 100 years.