Home thoughts from Yorkshire .............. a tale of one family over 700 years and a fine pub

In the churchyard

It is not often that I come across that powerful continuity of history which reminds you that some families have pretty much ruled the roost for centuries.

Of course it’s all there in the history books but to see and touch it is another thing.

And yes I come from a long line of agricultural labourers, factory “hands” cooks, bottle washers and itinerant tradesmen so while this isn’t a rant it might end up as a gentle reflection on where the power and money has sat for generations.

We were in Ripley in Yorkshire.  It is a place we have visited plenty of times, staying at the pub and hotel which was once a coaching inn and using it as a jumping off spot for walks and adventures.*

Looking into the castle

This time we were there with our Jill and Geoff who were up from London and fancied an escape from the city into the countryside.

So after a fine meal in the hotel we set off past the village cross and war memorial called in briefly at the art gallery and by degree made our way to the village church.

And there as you would expect were generations of the Ingilby family who according to their history site owned land in the village of Ingelby in Lincolnshire in 1090 and settled after a handsome marriage deal at Ripley Castle in 1308-9.

After which it was pretty much a succession of “good marriages” and service to the Crown with the odd bit of a blip.

All of which led me from the  tombchest of Sir Thomas and Katherine Maulevrer dating from 1369 in All Saints Church to a planning application on a widow in the grounds of the castle granting the present Sir Thomas permission to convert one of the buildings for commercial use.

The church stands opposite the castle, and the Boar's Head which is owned by the family just a few hundred yards away.

According to the Ingilby history site Sir William Ingibly closed all three pubs in the village in 1918 after a dispute with the publicans.  He did not want them to serve alcohol on Sundays and when they refused all were shut.

The Boar's Head

And the same Sir William banned the villagers from using their front doors after an incident where a young girl had run out of her house and started the horse he was riding on.

At which point I could slide into a diatribe but I won’t.

We were visitors yesterday and I have no idea of the relationship between the family and the village, so I shall leave it at that.

Except to say it would be 71 years before the village had a pub again which was the Boar's Head opened in 1989.

Pictures; Ripley, All Saints churchyard, looking in to the grounds of the castle and the Boars Head, July 2015, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Boars Head, Ripley, http://www.boarsheadripley.co.uk/

**Ingilby History, http://ingilbyhistory.ripleycastle.co.uk/700years.html