About Ripley
POPULATION: 19,636
Ripley Town Council: Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley, DE5 3BT Telephone: 01773 832211
Amber Valley Borough Council: Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley DE5 3BT (01773) 570222, out of hours (emergencies only) (01773) 841414. Opening times: 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Wed.
Ripley Town Council: Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley, DE5 3BT Telephone: 01773 832211
Amber Valley Borough Council: Town Hall, Market Place, Ripley DE5 3BT (01773) 570222, out of hours (emergencies only) (01773) 841414. Opening times: 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Wed.
Industry
One of the earliest companies to take advantage of mineral resources around Ripley was the Butterley Company. The company was formed in 1790 and still survives to the day in the guise of Butterley Engineering, Butterley Brick and Butterley Aggregates. Over the last 200 years the companies have seen many variations into different industries such as a steelworks, coal mining, quarrying, railway, foundry, brickworks. One of the most well known examples of the work of the company is the graceful arched roof of St. Pancras Station in London, which has recently been restored to great acclaim as an international rail terminal. A more recent major Butterley achievement was the design and construction of the Falkirk Wheel, a canal boat lift funded by the Millennium Commission and is a renowned achievement.
The Ripley area has been industrialised since the around 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 and still survives to the day in the guise of Butterley Engineering, Butterley Brick and Butterley Aggregates. Over the last 200 years the companies have seen many variations into different industries such as a steelworks, coal mining, quarrying, railway, foundry, brickworks. One of the most well known examples of the work of the company is the graceful arched roof of St. Pancras Station in London, which has recently been restored to great acclaim as an international rail terminal. A more recent major Butterley achievement was the design and construction of the Falkirk Wheel, a canal boat lift funded by the Millennium Commission and is a renowned achievement.
The Ripley area has been industrialised since the around the late 18th century.
Points of Interest
Notable Residents
Bombardier Charles Stone who was awarded the VC was born here. Barnes Wallis, inventor of the ‘Bouncing bomb’ and the “swing wing aircraft design” lived for a time in Ripley and the house on Butterly Hill where he was born is now marked with a Red plaque. In 2009 the Well Dressing, in the centre of the Town, theme was Barnes Wallis and his Daughter Mrs Mary Stopes-Roe opened the Well Dressing and visited the house where her Father was born. The present owner took Mrs Stopes-Roe round the house where Barnes Wallis was born.
- Constructed under the premises of the Butterley Company is the 2966 yard long Butterley Tunnel for the Cromford Canal. The central section of the canal is currently disused, but a charitable fund has been formed to reopen the canal and work continues on this project.
- Ripley is home to the Midland Railway, Butterley (which was 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 the northern most terminus of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Tramways Company.
- Ripley is home to local radio station Amber Sound 107.2 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 and is growing in popularity.
- Derbyshire Constabulary Headquarters are located on the outskirts of Ripley at Butterley Hall.
- 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 Ripley Methodist Church is situated in Wood Street Ripley. All Saints’ Anglican Church was built in 1821 and is situated, appropriately enough, on Church Street.
- 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 1990’s.
Notable Residents
Bombardier Charles Stone who was awarded the VC was born here. Barnes Wallis, inventor of the ‘Bouncing bomb’ and the “swing wing aircraft design” lived for a time in Ripley and the house on Butterly Hill where he was born is now marked with a Red plaque. In 2009 the Well Dressing, in the centre of the Town, theme was Barnes Wallis and his Daughter Mrs Mary Stopes-Roe opened the Well Dressing and visited the house where her Father was born. The present owner took Mrs Stopes-Roe round the house where Barnes Wallis was born.
ARMOURIAL BEARINGS
By Letters Patent dated 8th April 1954, the College of Arms granted armorial bearings to the Ripley Urban District Council in the following terms: “Vert on a chevron or between in chief two stags’ heads caboshed and in base a fleur de lys argent a chevronel sable surmounted by a Tudor rose barbed and seeded proper all within a bordure also argent thereon six horseshoes also sable. And for the crest, on a wreath of the colours, out of a mural crown sable flames proper issuant therefrom a Unicorn’s head argent armed and crined or charged with three spearheads erect one and two goles.”
The green background of the shield refers to the Royal Forest of Duffield which gives the ancient background of the district. The stags’ heads, another reference to the Forest, are also from the arms of the Cavendish Dukes of Devonshire who came into possession of Ripley after the Dissolution.
The chevron is for Heage or “Highedge” and also for the hilly character of the situation of Ripley. The black thinner chevron represents the coal seam lying beneath, and the Tudor rose, from the County arms, also refers to Coronation year, in which the grant of arms was sought.
The fleur de lys is from a seal attributed to Darley Abbey, and is also the emblem of St. Mary patron of Crich, part of which is in the District.
As the whole area was formerly in the protection of Darley Abbey, the arms are surrounded by a white border with six black horseshoes from the arms of its founders, the Ferrers family.
The closed helm proper to civic arms carries the decorative mantling and crest-wreath in the main colours of the arms, green and gold. Above is the crest.
The black mural or walled crown denotes a mining town, and the unicorn’s head, adapted from the Wright crest which is used by the Butterley Company, rises from the flames suggesting the local heavy industries.
The motto: “Ingenium industria alitur” or “Skill is fostered by diligence”, or in another sense, “Character thrives on hard work” or “Ability thrives on industry, is a quotation from Cicero.
The arms were designed by H. Ellis Tomlinson, M.A., of Poulton-le-Fylde. The Armorial Bearings were transferred to Ripley Town Council following Local Government Re-organisation in 1974.
By Letters Patent dated 8th April 1954, the College of Arms granted armorial bearings to the Ripley Urban District Council in the following terms: “Vert on a chevron or between in chief two stags’ heads caboshed and in base a fleur de lys argent a chevronel sable surmounted by a Tudor rose barbed and seeded proper all within a bordure also argent thereon six horseshoes also sable. And for the crest, on a wreath of the colours, out of a mural crown sable flames proper issuant therefrom a Unicorn’s head argent armed and crined or charged with three spearheads erect one and two goles.”
The green background of the shield refers to the Royal Forest of Duffield which gives the ancient background of the district. The stags’ heads, another reference to the Forest, are also from the arms of the Cavendish Dukes of Devonshire who came into possession of Ripley after the Dissolution.
The chevron is for Heage or “Highedge” and also for the hilly character of the situation of Ripley. The black thinner chevron represents the coal seam lying beneath, and the Tudor rose, from the County arms, also refers to Coronation year, in which the grant of arms was sought.
The fleur de lys is from a seal attributed to Darley Abbey, and is also the emblem of St. Mary patron of Crich, part of which is in the District.
As the whole area was formerly in the protection of Darley Abbey, the arms are surrounded by a white border with six black horseshoes from the arms of its founders, the Ferrers family.
The closed helm proper to civic arms carries the decorative mantling and crest-wreath in the main colours of the arms, green and gold. Above is the crest.
The black mural or walled crown denotes a mining town, and the unicorn’s head, adapted from the Wright crest which is used by the Butterley Company, rises from the flames suggesting the local heavy industries.
The motto: “Ingenium industria alitur” or “Skill is fostered by diligence”, or in another sense, “Character thrives on hard work” or “Ability thrives on industry, is a quotation from Cicero.
The arms were designed by H. Ellis Tomlinson, M.A., of Poulton-le-Fylde. The Armorial Bearings were transferred to Ripley Town Council following Local Government Re-organisation in 1974.
Ripley is twinned with Chateau-Renault, a small town in the Loire district in Central France. The settlement of Chateau-Renault dates from the feudal wars that occurred in the eleventh century between the Counts of Blois and Counts of Anjou. In the early part of the century a local member of the court of the Count of Blois was charged by the construction of a defensive structure (most likely a simple wooden tower) on the site of the present Chateau. He named this defensive structure after his son Renaud, this was the original of the towns name. However, the defensive structure was not enough and the area was soon lost to the Counts of Anjou. It was under the new management that land was gifted for the construction of a chapel and a small settlement at the foot of the castle site. The town was renowned through nineteenth century France for the leather produced there, with levels of calcium carbonate in the water giving the leather produced there a thick resistance nature and the arrival of the railway in 1867 ensured that this product had access to the market. There is a separate Twinning Association totally independent of the Town Council. Signing the Charter in 1996 a copy of which is on display in the Town Hall.