Ripon, at the foot of the Yorkshire Dales, is on the cusp of something big. Once the centre of Britain’s spur-making industry, it has for a long time played second fiddle to nearby Harrogate. It may have been a wonderful market town when riding was part of daily life, but that was a long time ago, and today it has a somewhat worn, forlorn feel. What the decline of the spur industry started, Beeching finished when the branch-line station was closed in the 1960s.

Now a group of locals are determined to revive the North Yorkshire city. They have turned to Andrew Ashenden, who in the mid1990s led the transformation of Marylebone, in central London, from a run-down shopping district, full of charity shops and chain stores, into a bustling, thriving area surrounded by some of the capital’s most desirable residential property.

Ashenden, who was chief executive of the Howard de Walden Estate, which owns more than 90 acres of Marylebone, was called in by Michael Abrahams, who has lived in Ripon for more than 30 years but is also chairman of The London Clinic on Harley Street, the estate’s largest tenant.

“I saw what Andrew achieved in Marylebone in a short time, and he has been immensely helpful to us here,” says Abrahams, chairman of the Ripon Improvement Trust, a registered local charity. “He came here and gave an illustrated talk about the problems we face. His advice has been invaluable and he is always on hand with ideas and suggestions.”

Ripon has a lot going for it: a good-looking and robust cathedral, where Lewis Carroll’s father was the canon (the Alice in Wonderland author lived in the city for 10 years), a racecourse, a cobbled market square and plenty of interesting museums and shops. It has three butchers, two independent wine merchants, an art gallery and two delicatessens. There is a market every Thursday, with a smaller affair on Saturdays. It also has small, quirky stores such as Appleton’s, a pork-pie shop that has been trading since 1867 – precisely the kind of place Ashenden believes can turn a town around.

“It is a good example of a beautiful English small cathedral city with a remarkable 1,300-year history – a North Yorkshire gem,” he says. As he acknowledges, however, Ripon also suffers from problems that are familiar to many British towns. Some of the shops on the square have frontages that are a morass of peeling paint and unwelcoming windows that look neglected and knackered. Many of the streets are strewn with dog-ends, discarded chewing gum, soft-drink cans and grease from take-away kebabs.

Thanks in part to Ashenden – who is helping the town on a voluntary basis - these problems are being addressed. A £3.5m lottery grant has helped to restore the market square and the cobbled area outside the cathedral. The river that runs through Ripon has been cleaned, a new bridge has been erected and towpaths have been cleared – all of which has added to the general well-being of the place.

A further boost came when Ashenden encouraged Booths, an upmarket super-market chain with branches across the northwest, to set up shop in the town. He is trying to attract an independent bookshop to the city, as he did with Daunt Books in Marylebone.

Ripon differs from Marylebone in one important respect, though: in the latter, all the properties are owned by the one landlord, the Howard de Walden Estate. In Ripon, by contrast, ownership is piecemeal, with small-time landlords out to get the best return on their investment.

Even so, Marylebone’s experience shows that, as the centre of the city improves, business thrives, more people want to live there and rental returns increase. Indeed, some improvements are evident already. In 1971, when Ripon was on its knees, its population was 11,000. By 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, it was 16,700.

Ripon also has a core group of enthusiastic traders and residents who are determined to improve the city and the lot of the people who live there – all of which is crucial.

A good example is Ludlow, in Shropshire, which has come back to life thanks to an influx of money and people interested in small food shops, the local drama society and restaurants.

It is also happening in Blandford, in Dorset; Wenlock Edge, also in Shropshire; Totnes, in Devon; and, most famous of the lot, Padstow, in Cornwall, which has benefited so much from Rick Stein’s restaurants and shops that locals have nicknamed the place “Padstein”.

Yorkshire sales

£450,000

This six-bedroom Victorian house on North Parade has three reception rooms, a garage and a garden. Beadnall Copley; 01765 698100.

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