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'Ripley' is a small town in the Amber Valley area of Derbyshire in England.
The surrounding area has been industrialised since the late 18th century. One of the earliest companies to take advantage of the 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 (now 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. A recent major achievement was the design and construction of the Falkirk Wheel, a spectacular canal boat lift funded by the Millennium Commission.
The inventor Barnes Wallis lived for a time in Ripley and now has one of the town's parks named after him. The house where he was born is now marked with a blue plaque.
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.
Ripley is also home to the Midland Railway Butterley (formerly Centre) a steam preservation trust, dedicated to preserving locomotives, rolling stock and other items related to the Midland Railway.
Ripley was the northern terminus of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Tramways Company.
The Headquarters of the Derbyshire Constabulary is located on the outskirts of Ripley at Butterley Hall.
John Wesley spent time in Ripley on his travels, preaching to local people under a tree on the market Place and at the old Blacksmiths. 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.
According to research and the analysis of names in Britain in 2006, Ripley has the highest proportion of people of ethnic-English origin.^[1] The analysis put 42.2 million adult voters in mainland Britain into 200 ethnic groups, based on both given names and surnames. Of Ripley's inhabitants, 88.5 percent have an English-ethnic background.
;Places and villages within Ripley:

★ Greenhillocks

★ Marehay

★ Peasehill

★ Waingroves

★ Nuttals Park

★ Greenwich

★ The Elms

★ Codnor

★ Porterhouse

★ Hammersmith

★ The Lons

Contents

Notable residents

Education

References

External links

Notable residents

★ Bombardier Charles Stone who was awarded the VC was born here^[2].

★ Barnes Wallis, Engineer lived here

★ Ash Scott Wood, Big brother contestant who was voted out early in season 4

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

★ Lons Infant School, Tavistock Avenue

★ Waingroves Primary School, Waingroves Road

★ Codnor Community Primary School, Whitegates
'Nearby Secondary Schools'

★ Ripley Mill Hill School, Peasehill

★ Swanwick Hall School, Swanwick Hill, Swanwick (2 miles north on B6179)

★ John Flamsteed School, Derby Road, Denby (2.5 miles south on B6179)
'Other'

★ Ripley Nursery School, Sandham Lane

★ Clowns Day Nursery, Cromford Road

★ Clowns Day Nursery, Butterley Park, A610

References

1. Ethnicity news at Yahoo
2. Derbyshire at VictoriaCross.org Accessed June 2007

External links

★ Ripley Town Council

★ Falkirk Wheel

★ Midland Railway Centre

★ Ripley Methodist Church

★ Methodist History Ripley

★ Ripley Christian Quaker Meeting