18. Ripley Town (size of a village), Church and Castle Scenes in North Yorkshire

INDEX Ripley Town, the village buildings *  All Saints Church * Ripley Castle  *  Information adapted from Wikipedia

The Ripley Town Buildings

Ripley is a town and civil parish in North Yorkshire in England, a few miles north of Harrogate on the A61 road towards Ripon. The town name derives from Old English and is believed to mean wood of the Hrype or Ripon people Ripley was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.

The town and castle are privately owned. A castle dating from the 15th century, Ripley Castle, has been the home of the Ingilby family for 700 years. The present owner is Sir Thomas Ingilby, 6th Baronet, the 28th generation. The castle, which has a priest hole, is open for public tours. The landscaped castle grounds and ornamental lakes are also open to the public.

Ripley has 55 Grade II Listed buildings including Ripley Town Hall and two that are Grade I Listed: Ripley Castle and the Gatehouse Approximately 80 Metres South of Ripley Castle. A 19th century Ingilby tore down the old village, except for the castle and the church, and modelled it after an Alsatian village with Ripley Town Hall designed in the style of a French "hôtel de ville".

There is a cycle path between Ripley and Harrogate called the Nidderdale Greenway which is part of the National Cycle Route 67. In March 2017, the town was named number 17 out of the 20 Best Villages in Britain to live in (one of only two in the North of England).

Some of the listed buildings in Ripley.

Left: Boar's Head pub, an old coaching inn in Ripley

Right: The Ripley Stores shop in Ripley

*

Left: The Harrogate Tipple, The Distillery and Shop in Ripley

Right: The Town Hall of Ripley

Ripley Town Hall is a municipal building in Main Street, Ripley, North Yorkshire, England. The structure, which is used as an events venue and as a post office, is a grade II listed building. History: In the mid-19th century the lord of the manor, Sir William Amcotts-Ingilby, developed a plan to redevelop Ripley in the style of an Alsatian village; the final building in his plan was the town hall which he wanted to resemble a French "Hôtel de Ville".

The new building was designed in the Gothic Revival style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in late 1854. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Main Street; the central bay featured a two-tier canted bay window with tracery and a crenelated parapet inscribed with the words "Hôtel de Ville 1854". The central bay was flanked by corner turrets and was surmounted by a stepped gable with a commemorative plaque, held in place by the figure of an angel. The plaque recorded the fact that, while Amcotts-Ingilby initiated the project, his wife completed it following his death in May 1854. The outer bays, which were recessed and crenelated, featured three-light windows with tracery on both floors. Internally, the principal rooms were the main assembly hall and an ante-room.

In the 19th century, the building was used as venue for public meetings and for meetings of the local literary institution. It continued to operate as a community events venue for throughout the 20th century, and an upper floor was installed in the building in the 1960s to allow more social functions to take place. A post office was also established in the right-hand side bay.

 Activity significantly increased after the local promotor, Andy Herrington, established the Ripley Blues Club there in the late 1990s: one of the first performers he attracted was the blues band, Nine Below Zero, in September 1999. An extensive programme of refurbishment works, financed by bodies which included the Heritage Lottery Fund, was completed in 2004. The works received recognition from the Duke of York's Community Initiative Award in 2007 and, following the re-opening of the town hall, later performers there included the American singer-songwriter, Steve Cropper, in November 2014, the rock band, Magna Carta, in September 2017 and the pub rock band, Dr. Feelgood, in December 2017.

The coffee shop, across from the Castle Tearoom cafe by Ripley Castle

All Saints Church, Ripley

A 14th century church adjacent to Ripley Castle ,the home of Sir Thomas Ingilby in a village between Harrogate and Ripon. Sometime around the year 1395 Sir Thomas Ingilby of Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, built a church opposite his castle to replace an earlier chapel half a mile to the south that was suffering from subsidence. The chapel's condition had become so desperate that it became known as the 'Sinking Chapel'. Sir Thomas reused carved stones from the earlier chapel and created a very simple building with a nave, north aisle, chancel, a two-storey chantry, and a stumpy west tower. Within a few decades, a south aisle and north chapel were added along with a small chantry.

The church remained unaltered until 1567 when Sir William Ingilby (1518-1578) had the tower heightened. He gave the tower its distinctive external turret stair and added a clerestory to the nave. Inside the church the Ingilby Chapel thought to date from before 1547 with fine pews carved for the Ingilby family. On the east wall are bullet holes where Royalist prisoners were shot by Cromwell's men during the civil war. Against the exterior of the south wall are gravestones salvaged from the Sinking Chapel. With the gravestones is a stone coffin now used as a flower bed. The churchyard has a Weeping Cross and is a unique survivor of many such crosses in England.

The graveyard of All Saints Parish Church, Ripley

General view of the external architecture of All Saints Church, Ripley

General view down the nave to the chancel and altar of the internal architecture of All Saints Church, Ripley

The chancel, choir, altar and east window of All Saints Church, Ripley

The tomb of Sir Thomas Ingilby (1290-1369) and his wife, All Saints Church, Ripley

The tomb of Sir William Ingilby (1546-1617) in All Saints Church, Ripley

The weeping cross in the graveyard of All Saints Church, Ripley

Ripley Castle

Ripley Castle is a Grade I listed 14th-century country house in Ripley, North Yorkshire, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Harrogate. The house is built of coursed squared gritstone and ashlar with grey slate and stone slate roofs. A central two-storey block is flanked by a tower at one end and a three-storey wing at the other. A gatehouse which stands some 260 feet (80 m) to the south of the main buildings is also Grade I listed, whilst the two weirs over Ripley Beck (and the bridges that straddle them) are grade II listed and the grounds and gardens are also listed at grade Lithe castle has been the seat of the Ingilby baronets for centuries. In June 2024 it was announced that it was to be sold.

Sir Thomas Ingleby (c. 1290–1352) married the heiress Edeline Thwenge in 1308/9 and acquired the Ripley Castle estate with its medieval manor house as her dowry. His oldest son, also called Thomas (1310–1369), saved the king from being gored by a wild boar whilst on a hunting expedition and was knighted in return with the boar's head symbol as his crest. His descendant Sir John Ingleby (1434–1499) inherited the estate at the age of five from his father William and built the castle gatehouse, before becoming a monk at Mount Grace Priory, near Northallerton, and later the Bishop of Llandaff. His son Sir William Ingleby was raised by his deserted mother.

Sir John's grandson, Sir William Ingleby (1518–1578), was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1564–65. Sir William added the tower to the building in 1548. Two of his sons were fervent Catholics on the run from the authorities. Francis, a priest, was caught, sentenced and hanged, drawn and quartered in York in 1586; David escaped to die on the Continent. Stephen Proctor captured another priest, Christopher Wharton, in the park at Ripley in 1598. Wharton was executed at York. Sir William Ingleby (1546–1618) was knighted by James VI of Scotland when the king was en route to his coronation as James I of England in 1603.

Later that year he captured one of the fugitive brothers of the Earl of Gowrie at Kirkby Malzeard. In 1605 he was involved in the Gunpowder Plot, allowing the plotters to stay at Ripley whilst they procured horses. One of the conspirators, Robert Winter was his nephew. Ingleby was arrested and charged with treason, but acquitted. Sir William Ingleby (1594–1652) supported Charles I during the Civil War, and was made Baronet Ingleby in 1642. He fought at Marston Moor in 1644, when the King's forces were totally routed, making his escape to Ripley and hiding in a priest hole while Oliver Cromwell billeted himself there for the night, held at gunpoint in the library by Sir William' sister, Jane Ingleby.

On the death of the 4th Baronet in 1772 the baronetcy became extinct but was revived in 1781 for his illegitimate son John (1758–1815). Sir John undertook a major rebuild of the castle in 1783–86 by William Belwood but got into debt and fled overseas in 1794 for several years. During this time the estate was managed by its long-serving steward, Ralph Robinson, who sold timber from the estate to raise money.

Sir John was High Sheriff for 1782–83 and MP for East Retford from 1790 to 1796. His son William (1783–1854) was a great eccentric, drinker and gambler and Member of Parliament (MP) for East Retford from 1807 to 1812 and High Sheriff in 1821. He adopted the surname of Amcotts-Ingilby (his mother was Elizabeth Amcotts) and demolished and rebuilt the village of Ripley, complete with a Continental-style hôtel de ville.

Having no heir he left the Ripley estate to his first cousin, Henry John Ingilby. The baronetcy was extinguished a second time. Henry was created 1st Baronet Ingilby of the third creation in 1866. Ripley then descended to the present 6th Baronet. The castle is still privately owned, now by the 6th Baronet and his wife, Emma, Lady Ingilby, but open to the public for guided tours. In June 2024, it was announced that the castle and estate were to be put on the market in the autumn.

The Gatehouse entrance of Ripley Castle

General view of the lake and Ripley Castle

The external architecture of Ripley Castle

The Coffee Shop and visitor entrance to Ripley Castle and the Castle Tea Room cafe

 West Yorkshire Index

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