AN EXHIBITION at Ripon's museums is looking at the history of homelessness and explores how the realities of the issue have changed today.

Known as vagrants, tramps, rogues and vagabonds, beggars during the Victorian period within the workhouse, prison and court systems, the Workhouse, Courtroom and Prison and Police Museums in the town each tell the story of the life of the homeless.

Museum curator Leah Mellors said: "The exhibition looks at historic and contemporary homelessness. In the 19th century, vagrants, as they were commonly known, were criminalised because it was illegal to be homeless and to beg on the streets.

"In Ripon, the workhouse provided casual rooms for vagrants in 1874, but they were only allowed to stay for two nights, then were not to return for 30 days. So we can actually track the routes many took between workhouses in Leeds, Thirsk and Northallerton.

"We have also worked with charities SASH, YMCA and Harrogate Homeless to build a picture of what is being done now. Our exhibition includes pictures of people who are currently homeless, along with their story in their own words of how they came to be homeless. It is very powerful, and shows how easily any of us could fall into the situation." The exhibition runs until December 7.