RIPLEY: Amber Valley Parish #32 of 35

Описание: AMBER VALLEY PARISH #32 OF 35: RIPLEY

Hello out there Amber Valley. I never forgot you! I’ve known for a while there are still four more places to visit here, but the delay has been necessary. The ones that remain are the hardest, and in Ripley, we have a prime example of just how difficult these last four will be to cover

Ripley is a market town – but it has far more than just a market place to deal with. Ripley is a behemoth. It covers several other small hamlets and industrial areas. Heage, which is also within the parish, has the beautifully restored Heage Windmill, one of Derbyshire’s most distinctive landmarks.

The place name likely derives from Old English elements meaning a strip of land plus a woodland clearing, or it might come from an Anglian tribal name, reflecting its early landscape and settlement pattern.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book and by the 13th century it had secured market and fair rights. A royal charter in 1251 granted a weekly market and an annual three‑day fair, anchoring Ripley’s civic life around that all important market square.

Medieval Ripley remained small with a collection of cottages, farms and water‑mills, until the late 18th century, when the exploitation of local coal, ironstone and limestone transformed the parish, reorientating Ripley from an agrarian village to an industrial town

From its former engineering works sites to the later Midland Railway heritage lines that now form part of the local industrial memory, the Butterley Company was one of the most influential engineering firms of its time, and it shaped Ripley’s identity for generations.

Founded in 1790, it became a powerhouse of Victorian engineering, producing locomotives, bridges, and ironwork exported across the world. Sir Barnes Wallis worked for the Butterley Company early in his career. He’s the engineer famous for inventing the “bouncing bomb” used in WWII

Today, Ripley is known for its bustling market town character. Annual celebrations, including the Ripley Music Festival and the Christmas lights switch‑on, bring the town together in classic Derbyshire style.

For visitors and locals alike, Ripley offers a rich tapestry of stories waiting to be explored. The quirky side of Ripley adds charm to its history. The town once had a reputation for unusually strict licensing laws, earning it the nickname “Dry Ripley” because pubs were limited for many years.

Our route will follow a lengthy walking trail around the town centre, and a driving circuit through the rest of Ripley parish, via Waingroves and Butterley before looping through the two Heages and the two Hartshays. There’s a lot to get through here. We had better get going

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#Ripley, #Derby, #Derbyshire, #Heage, #Churches, #AmberValley, #Windmills, #Pubs, #Halls, #Markets, #Shops, #Lidl, #Sainsburys, #Chapels, #Cemeteries, #Coal, #Collieries, #Engineering, #Butterley, #Railways, #Stations, #Outram, #Cromford, #Canals, #Walking, #Scenery,

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Some of the following music tracks may appear in this video:
Brendan Perkins - “Foxsnow” (B. Perkins)
   • Foxsnow  
Brendan Perkins - “Mickey's House” (B. Perkins)
   • Mickey's House  
The Keyhouse - "Voices" (H. Flunder)
   • Voices  
The Keyhouse - "Circles" (H. Flunder)
   • The Keyhouse - Circles (official audio)  
Helen Flunder - "Sun" (H. Flunder)
   • Helen Flunder - 'Sun' (Official Audio)  
Helen Flunder - “Angels” (H. Flunder)
   • Helen Flunder - Angels (Official Audio)  
Helen Flunder - “C Song” (H. Flunder)
   • Caistor and the Lincolnshire Wolds  

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