Ripley Town Hall is a municipal building in Main Street,

Ripley, North Yorkshire Ripley is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire in England, a few miles north of Harrogate on the A61 road towards Ripon. The village name derives from Old English and is believed to mean wood of the ''Hrype'' or Ripon people. Until 1 ...

, England. The structure, which is used as an events venue and as a post office, is a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In the mid-19th century the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

, 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 Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

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 A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

with

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

and a

crenelated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

inscribed with the words "Hôtel de Ville 1854". The central bay was flanked by corner

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s and was surmounted by a

stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

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 Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

band,

Nine Below Zero Nine Below Zero are an English rock band who have a cult following throughout Europe. They became popular during the period 1980–1982 and are still performing currently throughout the UK, Scandinavia and Europe as of 2025. Career The band ...

, in September 1999. An extensive programme of refurbishment works, financed by bodies which included the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, 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 Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He was the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as ...

, in November 2014, the rock band,

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ...

, in September 2017 and the pub rock band, Dr. Feelgood, in December 2017.

References

{{Reflist Government buildings completed in 1854 City and town halls in North Yorkshire Grade II listed buildings in North Yorkshire