Ripley, Derbyshire

Historical Description

Ripley, a market-town and civil and ecclesiastical parish in Derbyshire. The town stands on a branch of the M.R., near the Cromford Canal, 10 miles NNE of Derby; is well built, carries on extensive trade in connection with neighbouring collieries, the Butterley Ironworks, and an establishment for silk and cotton manufacture, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Derby, and a central station, besides one at Butterley erected in 1890. There are two banks, a church, Baptist, Congregational, Primitive and United Free Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels; a cemetery, under the control of a burial board; a market hall, a public ball, a police station. Ripley is also a seat of petty sessions and publishes two weekly newspapers. A market is held on Saturdays, and fairs on Easter-Wednesday and 23 Oct. The parish also contains the hamlets of Butterley Park, Hartshay, Marehay, Greenwich, Green Hillocks, Pease Hill, and Waingroves. Acreage, 2815, of which 20 are water; population, 8774. It is governed by an urban district council. The Butterley Company Limited are the chief landowners. The ecclesiastical parish was constituted in 1855. Population, 7687. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £284 with residence. The church, built in 1821, and completely restored in 1861, is in the Decorated style, and consists of chancel, nave, and embattled tower. A new church was erected at Green Hillocks in 1895. Roman coins were found in 1730.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in conjunction with the Derbyshire Record Office, have the Church of England Baptisms (1538-1916), Marriages and Banns (1538-1932), and Burials (1538-1991) online.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ripley from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ripley)

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Derbyshire is online.

Maps

Online maps of Ripley are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Derbyshire papers online:

• Derby Daily Telegraph
• Derby Mercury
• Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald
• Derbyshire Courier