Tranquilly ……… with a bit of busy history

We discovered Ripley about a decade ago on one of those adventures which took us to Harrogate, Rippon and beyond.

Lurking behind the trees, 2023

And thinking ahead we booked into the Boar’s Head Hotel facing the market square and what followed was an affinity for the village which keeps taking us back.*

By the lake, 2023

The place has a castle, a medieval church and attracts heaps of visitors.

Some come to explore Ripley’s history or just walk in the castle’s gardens.

Across the lake, 2023

Either way there is much to do, and while there are plenty of people there is also a tranquilly about the place.

And for me also offers up opportunities to dig deep into the history of the village and its pubs.

So that is about it.

Location; Ripley

Pictures; walking around Ripley, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Ripley, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Ripley

Two pubs in search of a landlord .... and a history ……. more stories from Ripley in Yorkshire

Stories seldom turn out the way you expect.

The Boar's Head, 2023

The plan was simple.  Trace a favourite pub and hotel, which was once a coaching inn, explore its history and if the research goes well uncover the lives of some of the landlords.

The place is the Boar’s Head in Ripley, which occupies a prominent position on the old market square just a few minutes’ walk from the equally old Ripley Castle and the parish church of All Saints.

Ripley, 1854

I have written about the village over the years and last week we were back, and I judged it was time to sort out the story of the pub.*

It seemed a simple enough task.  I had been told the pub had been there a long time, was briefly closed by one of Ingilby family who owned the village and later reopened as a lucrative addition to the family’s income.

Choosing to close and then reopen the pub was small beer to the Ingilby’s who in 1830 rebuilt the village in a uniform style derived from French influence and two decades later built the impressive Town Hall.

Coaches from the Star Inn, 1841

So to the story ….. which is twisty, with unexpected surprises and more than a few unanswered questions and starts with the odd discovery that the Boars Head Inn was not where it is now. 

It was a little to the south at the edge of the village but was important enough to be marked on the map with its name prominently displayed on the 1854 OS map of Ripley.

Meanwhile the pub in the market square was the Star Hotel which appears the more interesting, given that it was also the location for the Excise Office and acted as the coaching station for coaches travelling to and from Leeds, Rippon, York, and Newcastle

Added to which it survived into the 1880s while its rival is missing from the Directories.

Just why the Boar's Head is missing from the list is unclear.  I do know that it was still there in 1855, along with the Star and four rivals in the surrounding villages and hamlets.  

Of these “alternatives” my favourite is the Ass in a Band Box in Nid which is just a mile from Ripley. 

And at present that is about it, leaving me to pursue the landlords of the Star and Boar’s Head, who in 1841 were George Wood and Stephen Broadbelt.  Of these Mr. Broadbelt has revealed more of his life because he combined his time between offering beer and cheer with farming.

Ripley Church, Castle & Cross, undated

In 1851 he described himself as “Inn keeper [at the Boar’s Head] and farmer of 60 acres employing 2 labourers."  

The census return for that year has him in Ripley living with his wife Margaret, two children, a lodger and two servants.

Stephen and Margaret were married in 1834 and there is a wide age gap between the birth of their daughter in 1835 and their son in 1849, which may suggest some of their children died prematurely.

At present the records are silent, but there is more on Mr. Broadbelt and his father.  

We have their tax records going back into the 1790s for Ripley as well a license granted in 1781 for a premise in the neighbouring village of Killinghall. Its unclear if this was for “a common Alehouse”, “Victualling house” or "Tipplinghouse", all of which appear on the document granting the license**

Playing with numbers, Ripley, 1841

Equally fascinating are the entries for the Poll Books for the 1830s through to the 1840s.  

These were essentially electoral registers, but with the added bonus that in a general election year they recorded the way electors voted.

Voting was still not secret, and the Poll Books published the voting preferences of those who voted.

So, in 1841 in the tiny village of Ripley the seven men entitled to cast their vote overwhelmingly went for the two Tory candidates. Just one elector opted for the Whigs, while five voted Tory with one not voting.

Mr. Broadbelt was one of the Tories and was in the company of Edward Burnett, John Robinson, George Tateson, and William Thorpe along with Sir William Ingilby of Ripley Castle, who as we know owned Ripley.

Sir William Amcotts Ingilby, undated

Voting intimidation was common in the 19th century and even if electors were not “leaned on” it would a brave man in a “company” village who voted against the political preference of their landlord.  And in the case of Mr. Broadbelt it is as well to remember he ran the Boar’s Head also owned by the Ingilby’s.

Not that the majority of Ripley had much say anyway.  

In 1841 there were 296 inhabitants, of these 148 were over the age of 21, and 83 were men.  Those qualified to vote represented just 8% of the total number of men and just 4% of the entire adult population.

As for the Star Inn it may have hit lean times when Ripley got its own railway station which may have done for the its coaching business.

But didn't finish it off.  

In 1911 it is still there under the direction of a Thomas Lister Smailes, who ran the 15 roomed hotel with his wife, and described himself as a "Farmer and Hotel keeper", and was the son of George Smailes who was doing the business at the Star thirty years earlier.

Looking out from the Boar's Head, 2023

But all good things must come to an end and in 1919 according to one account Sir William Ingilby closed the Ripley pubs on Sundays, which in turn lead to all three closing permanently.

The Boar's Head formerly the Star Inn, 2023

This state of affairs lasted until 1990  when Sir Thomas Ingilby opened  the present Boar's Head in the former Star Inn.  In the intervening 71 years the building had variously "been  houses, storage for car parts, a skittle alley, a village youth club, and a talking newspaper studio", with the last occupant leaving in 1990.***

Location; Ripley

Pictures; The Boars Head, 2023, Sir William Amcotts  Ingilby, undated looking out from the Boar's Head, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Ripley 1854, from the OS map of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 1854, Coaches to and from the Star Inn 1841, Piggott's Royal National and Commercial Directory, 1841, Ripley Church, Castle and Cross, undated , Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/

*Ripley, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Ripley

** An Alehouse sold ale, a Victuallinghouse was a commercial establishment at which food and beverages were served, and a Tippling house was where liquors were sold in drams or small quantities, to be drunk on the premises.

***17th-century beer and Virginia creeper: discover The Boar’s Head, Chris Clissitt, May 28th, 2021, YAYUK,  https://www.yayuk.com/style/food-drink/17th-century-beer-and-virginia-creeper-discover-the-boar-s-head

A painting …..the new village …… and the search for a pub …. the Ripley story

 This is Sir William Amcotts Ingilby who sits above the staircase of the Boar’s Head in Ripley.

Sir William Amcotts Ingilby and his hat, undated

To my shame I have I have never bothered to find out his name despite frequent stays at the hotel over the years.

The Boar's Head, 2023

In my defence the descriptor on the frame is difficult to read, and so yesterday I emailed the Boar’s Head asking for his name.

And in matter of hours they replied that “The gentleman in the painting, as you go up the stairs, is Sir William Amcotts Ingilby (1783- 1854).  He was an eccentric member of the family, prone to wearing dreadful hats and well known for wandering around in his dressing gown with little on underneath.

It was Sir William who rebuilt Ripley in the 1800’s, replacing the old thatched and dilapidated cottages with the lovely stone cottages you see today. 

Ripley is known as a model estate village as it was based on a French town Sir William admired in Alsace Lorraine. It is courtesy of Sir William that we have a Hôtel de Ville instead of a town hall and the many overhanging eaves and arched windows, typical of a northern French village”.

This was enough to set me off looking for more to the story, and more there was.

The village was rebuilt in 1830, which according to Piggott’s Commercial directory saw the old houses being “taken down along with the grammar school” and replaced with properties “in a uniform style…. resulting in a neat and pleasing appearance.”*

Just 24 years later the Ingleby family erected “A handsome Town Hall of stone called the ‘Hotel de Ville’ [which] is used both for public meetings and for literary purposes”.**

A boar and a glass, by any other name .... 2023

For some the demolition of the old cottages and the substitution of new ones in a “uniform style” will look to be a vanity project, made possible because the Ingilby’s owned the village and so could do as they pleased

Ripley in 1847

But then I don’t know the state of the old properties which may well have been past their “sell by date” or if the rents went up in recognition that these were new.

As ever there is more research to do, and that I will do, if only to get to the bottom of the mystery of Boar’s Head which I am told was once a coaching stop, on the way to Rippon, York, Newcastle, and Leeds.

And so with that in mind I went digging only to find that the Boars’ Head in 1847 was a little further south along the road out of Ripley and that on the site or very close to it was the Star Inn which is also described as the Excise Office.

Now I know the names of the landlords of both places, and both are listed as farmers, with a Parliamentary vote.  In the case of one I have tracked him back into the 18^th century running another drinking establishment in a nearby village.

Looking out from the Boar's Head, 2023

To add to the confusion the Boar’s Head vanishes from the listings by 1881, begging lots of questions about what happened to it and when it transferred to its present site.

All of which will be for tomorrow.

Location; Ripley

Pictures; the picture of the painting of Sir William Amcotts Ingilby, the Boar's Head Hotel, along with the Boar’s Head and the window, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2023, and Ripley in 1854,  Yorkshire OS Six Inch to the Mile, 1847-1854 Old Maps on line https://maps.nls.uk/view-full/102344737#zoom=7&lat=9822&lon=2682&layers=BT

 *Piggott’s And Co’s Royal  National Commercial Directory, 1841

**Kelly’s Directory of Yorkshire, 1881

 

 

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

In Ripley ...... with the memorial to the 68 who went to war

Ripley is a delightful village just 15 minutes from the Cathedral at Rippon and 23 miles from York.

It has a fine medieval church, a castle dating from the 15th century, a very nice hotel and a war memorial.

The memorial stands as it should in the centre of the village and records the 42 men who marched off to the Great War, including the five who never returned, and the twenty six who served in the Second World War of which one died.

Today the population stands at 232, and back in 1840 it was 270.

I don’t have the figures for the population of either the village or the surrounding countryside for 1918 or 1945 but those 68 men and women recorded on the memorial will compose a significant number of the people who lived here and served.

Location; Ripley













Picture; Ripley, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Dame Ingilby’s gift to Ripley

The water fountain is less a piece of street furniture and more a feature of the village.

It was “a gift to Ripley from the Honourable Alicia Margaret Dame Ingilby in 1907" and once had two drinking cups.

They have long gone, and I didn’t try getting a drink from it.

That said the right hand trough was full of water and the tap looked fairly new so perhaps I could have done.

But with the Boar’s Head opposite which sells fine cask beer and excellent wines, I know I was never going to bother.

Of course, once upon a time such fountains were an important part of a village, or town and like the horse trough were an important feature.

All of which takes me back to the Boar’s Head which has only been selling pints since 1990, although the building was once one of three pubs in the village.

But when Sir William Ingilby who owned the village took against beer being sold on the Sabbath, in 1919 all three pub landlords left and the village was dry for 71 years.

Only the Boar’s Head does the business today having once been the Star Inn and was the breakfast stop for the Leeds to Edinburgh coach.

And that is it.

Location; Ripley

Pictures; Ripley 2017, from the collection of Andrew Simpson