FOR 20 years, seven days a week, come rain, snow, hail or shine, Alan Oliver has ensured a 1,000-year hornblowing tradition continues.

But at the end of this month he will be blowing the horn in Ripon Market Place for the last time.

Dressed in his distinctive fawn frock coat with red trims and an ancient Ripon horn slung over his shoulder, Mr Oliver is one of the most high profile figures in the city - and one of its most popular tourist attractions.

Coun Stuart Martin, the new mayor of Ripon, said: "I am sad Alan is leaving the job because he is such a fantastic ambassador. But I perfectly understand that after 20 years' service he wants some of his life back. It is a demanding job, seven days a week at 9pm every night."

Tradition also demands that Mr Oliver, whose full-time job is a postman, must also blow the horn outside the mayor's home, where an ornate mayoral lamp has just been installed to mark Coun Martin's appointment.

"Fortunately I am on his way home so it is a bit more convenient than with some mayors. But if the mayor lives outside the city boundary he blows the horn at another mayoral lamp at the town hall instead," said Coun Martin.

Mr Oliver blows the horn at the four corners of the Market Place obelisk, and after the ceremony chats to visitors and answers questions about the time-honoured ceremony.

A replacement will be sought by Harrogate Borough Council, which features him in its tourist brochure.