Ripley, Derbyshire

Coordinates: 53°03′01″N 1°24′28″W / 53.0502°N 1.4077°W / 53.0502; -1.4077

Ripley
Nottingham Road, Ripley
Ripley  Ripley shown within Derbyshire
Population	21,097
OS grid reference	SK398505
District	Amber Valley
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RIPLEY
Postcode district	DE5
Dialling code	01773
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Amber Valley
List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire

Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley area of Derbyshire in England.

Earliest history

Not much information is available as to when Ripley was founded, but it existed at the time of the Domesday Book, when it was held by a man called Levenot.

In 1251 Henry III granted a charter for "One market, one day a week, on Wednesday, at [the] manor of Ryppeleg: and one fair each year, lasting three days on the Vigil Day and Morrow of St Helen". Ripley Fair pre-dates the Goose Fair at Nottingham and the market day was later altered to Saturdays with an extra market added on Fridays^[1]

In the Middle Ages, Ripley was just a few stone cottages and farms around the village green with a few dwellings further afield. Corn was ground at the mill owned by the Abbot of Darley and in 1291 there were "two water-mills with fish ponds" in Ripley.

Industry

The Ripley area has been industrialised since the late 18th century.

One of the earliest companies to take advantage of mineral resources around Ripley was the Butterley Company. The company was formed in 1790 by Benjamin Outram and Francis Beresford. Jessop and Wright joined as partners in 1791. Benjamin Outram and Jessop were pioneering engineers best known for their input into the rail industry and also their engineering of the Cromford Canal. Outram developed the L shaped flange rail and Jessop engineered the cast iron fish belly rail.The Little Eaton Gangway project was one of the engineering feats they completed. Sadly, the engineering part of the company closed and the site of the Butterley Company was demolished in 2010. The company was latterley in three parts, Butterley Engineering, Butterley Brick and Butterley Aggregates (all separate companies). Over the last 200 years the companies have been a steelworks, coal mining, quarrying, railway, foundry, brickworks. One of the early, and most well known, examples of the work of the company includes the graceful arched roof of St. Pancras Station in London, recently restored to great critical acclaim as an international rail terminal. Recent major Butterley achievements were the design and construction of the Falkirk Wheel, a spectacular canal boat lift funded by the Millennium Commission and the Spinnaker Tower seen in Portsmouth Harbour as the focus of the Regeneration of Portsmouth Harbour.

Ripley was also a mining community with collieries owned until the Coal Nationalization Act of 1947 by Butterley Company. These included Ripley colliery worked from 1863–1948, Britain colliery worked 1918-1946, Ormonde 1908-1970^[2] and more pits at Upper and Lower Hartshay, Whiteley, Waingrove, Bailey Brook, Exhibition, Loscoe, New Langley and Denby Hall.

Other points of interest

Constructed under the premises of the Butterley Company is the 2966 yard long Butterley Tunnel for the Cromford Canal.^[3] The central section of the canal is currently disused, but a charitable fund has been formed to reopen the canal.

Ripley is also home to the Midland Railway - Butterley (formerly the Midland Railway Centre) a railway preservation trust, dedicated to preserving locomotives, rolling stock and other items related to the Midland Railway.

Ripley was once served by Ripley railway station on the Midland Railway Ripley Branch. It was also the northern terminus of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Tramways Company, and later the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire trolleybus system.

Ripley is home to local radio station Amber Sound FM. A community radio station awarded a five year broadcast license in June 2008, Amber Sound is based on Unicorn Business Park just off Wellington Street.

The Headquarters of the Derbyshire Constabulary is located on the outskirts of Ripley at Butterley Hall. Benjamin Outram's son, James Outram (British officer) was born here on the 29/01/1803. He became an officer in the Indian Army and was later knighted. He died in Pau, Nice, France on the 11/03/1863 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, London.

The Methodist Church is reputed to be the oldest Church in town and is still active today. At the peak of the movement there were 5 Methodist Churches in the town, but over the years they have combined.^[4] Ripley Methodist Church is situated in Wood Street Ripley. Wood Street Methodist church was recently rebuilt on the same site and re-opened in November 2009. An outcome of the nearby Pentridge, or Pentrich, Rising of 1817 was for the vicar of Pentrich Church to call for an Anglican church to be built in Ripley as soon as possible. This is why Sir Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley as his father was the curate of said All Saints' Anglican Church which was built in 1821 and is situated, appropriately enough, on Church Street(a).

Other places of worship include the Salvation Army hall, situated on Heath Road,which was opened in 1911,the Springs of the Living Water housed in the former St. John's Church on Derby Road, the Spiritual Church on Argyll Road and Marehay Methodist Chapel on Warmwells Lane, Marehay.

Ripley also has a Community Hospital with a minor A+E department, which was opened on 7/9/1912. The hospital was built after the sad demise of a miner injured at Pentrich Colliery who did not survive the road journey to Derby in time for treatment.^[5] The Ripley Hospital League of Friends have been an active fund raising group for the hospital throughout its history.

Town Hall

Ripley Town Hall on the Market Place was originally built in 1880. It was greatly extended and remodelled by the Amber Valley Borough Council to form that Council's Headquarters in the 1990s.

According to research and the analysis of names in Britain in 2006, Ripley has the highest proportion of people of ethnic-English origin.^[6] Of Ripley's inhabitants, 88.5 percent have an English-ethnic background.

Parks and natural features

Butterley Reservoir situated at the north of the town at the bottom of Butterley Hill, has pairs of Great Crested Grebes, Coots, Moorhens and other birds to watch and platforms for anglers to use. There is a footpath to walk on and take in the scenery with the Midland Railway Trust in the background. This reservoir has the capacity to hold 16 million cubic feet of water!

There is Carr Wood which is signposted from halfway down Butterley Hill where wildlife and the small woodland area can be enjoyed.

All around Ripley there are footpaths which can be used to take you to places such as Devils Wood ( also locally known as Bluebell Wood), around Waingroves and down Lowes Hill to Hammersmith. At Hammersmith you can see the row of terraced houses, known as ‘Poker Row’. Legend has it, when a tenant saw the Rent Man from Butterley Co; advancing towards their houses, they would knock on the adjoining house wall, using the metal poker from their coal fire, and alert their neighbour of his presence and this would continue along the terraced row and they would all lock their doors and wait until he’d gone away!

At the bottom of Moseley Street adjacent to the Red Lion pub in Ripley Town Centre there is a recreation field named after Sir Barnes Wallis which offers views over to Crich Stand, the Sherwood Foresters Memorial. Crich Stand was built by Francis Hurt in 1778 and in 1922 was dedicated to the fallen of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment (colloquially known as the Woofers) in World War I, but now is the memorial to those in the Regiment who have died in all conflicts.^[7]

The Pit Top is an open area with some seating and a white Arch sculpture. The area is grassed over and is the site of the original Ripley Colliery owned by Butterley Company and worked from 1863 until 1948.^[8] Crossley Park is a few acres of grassed land opened in 1935. It is surrounded by shrubs and trees on a tract of land given to the town by James Crossley in 1901. The Park contains a children’s play area with summer paddling pool, tarmacced walk around the perimeter and bandstand, which has Brass Bands playing occasionally in the summertime on Sunday late afternoons.

Greenwich to the east of Ripley has football pitches, a cricket pitch and pavilion. There is also a skateboard ramp area which local boarders use and a good open area within which you can walk your dogs.

There are further recreation grounds in Marehay and Upper Marehay.

Places and villages within Ripley

From North to South

• Hammersmith
• Hartshay
• Butterley
• Amber Heights
• Lons
• Greenwich
• Porterhouse
• Nuttals Park,also known locally as the 'Pit Top'
• The Elms
• Peasehill
• Greenhillocks
• Waingroves
• Whiteley
• Marehay

Notable residents

• Bombardier Charles Stone (1889–1952), who was awarded the VC was born in Ripley.^[9]
• Barnes Wallis (1887–1979), inventor of the 'Bouncing bomb' lived for a time in Ripley and now has one of the town's parks and Pub 'The Sir Barnes Wallis' named after him. The house where he was born is now marked with a blue plaque.
• Andy Sneap (born 1969), prominent heavy metal record producer and thrash metal musician, whose company Backstage Productions is based in the town.
• John Flanagan (born in Ripley 1947-) Actor. Son of a local Policeman, he has appeared in several TV series and films including 'The Sweeney' and 'Shipman'.
• John Bamford Slack (1857–1909), Liberal MP and prominent Methodist, was born in Ripley
• Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet (born at Butterley Hall 29/01/1803-11/03/1863), The son of Benjamin Outram, James became an officer in the Indian Army.He was knighted for his work. He died in 1863 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
• Percy Illsley (born in Ripley 1863) Former miner at Denby Hall Colliery, Illsley was the Midlands Featherweight Wrestling Champion in the 1920s.

Education

Primary schools

• Ripley Infant School, Kirk Close, DE5 3RY
• Ripley Junior School, Poplar Avenue, DE5 3PN
• St Johns C of E Primary School, Dannah Street,Ripley
• Lons Infant School, Tavistock Avenue,Ripley
• Waingroves Primary School, Waingroves Road,Ripley
• Codnor Community Primary School, Whitegates

Local secondary school and sixth form

• Ripley Mill Hill School, Peasehill,Ripley

Nearby secondary schools

• Swanwick Hall School, Swanwick Hill, Swanwick (2 miles north on B6179 road)
• John Flamsteed School, Derby Road, Denby (2.5 miles south on B6179)

Pre-schools

• Ripley Nursery School, Sandham Lane
• Clowns Day Nursery, Cromford Road
• Clowns Day Nursery, Butterley Park, A610
• Alphabet Childminders, Ripley.

References

1. ^ Ripley Town Council and Brian Wood,2007, Ripley, Heage and Ambergate.People, places and events. Ripley Town Council.
2. ^ c-David Bell,Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields. Countryside Books, Newbury, Berkshire.
3. ^ Robin Witter (7 October 2002). "Butterley Tunnel - The Illustrated Report". the Web Site for The Friends of the Cromford Canal. http://www.cromfordcanal.org.uk/tunnel.html. 
4. ^ Ripley Methodist Church
5. ^ David Buxton,1994,Pocket Images. Ripley and Codnor. Nonsuch Publishing Ltd; Gloucestershire.
6. ^ Ethnicity news at Yahoo
7. ^ Rod Jewell, 1998, Memory Lane. Belper, Ambergate and Districts. Breedon Books Publishing Co; Derby.
8. ^ David Bell, 2006, Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields, Countryside books, Newbury, Berkshire.
9. ^ Derbyshire at VictoriaCross.org Accessed June 2007

External links

• Ripley Town Council
• Ripley People - Local News Site
• Ripley, Derbyshire at the Open Directory Project