Ripley Ville
[2] Ripley Ville contained 196 workmen's cottages, a school and teacher's house, a church, allotment gardens and, on a separate site about a half-mile distant, a vicarage and ten almshouses which are still standing although all the other buildings had been demolished by 1970.As a councillor, JP and public figure Ripley was deeply involved in the debates which engaged the recently (1847) incorporated borough council and its citizens.After four decades of rapid economic and population growth Bradford had some of the worst housing and sanitary conditions in the UK and about the lowest life expectancy.By the mid 1860s the views of the improvers had moved on from the provision of basic accommodation to considerations of lighting, ventilation, heating, storage, privacy and open space.The cobbled back streets provided access for wheeled traffic and contained the mains services (water, gas, sewerage).The church was completed four years after the houses and school by other architects and it seems that Andrews and Pepper's scheme anticipated a major building at this point.The slight fall of about 4 ft was compensated for by building up gardens walls in the lower section so that doors and windows remained in alignment.Ripley Terrace and Vere Street front garden walls were about 3 ft high with broad rounded capstones surmounted by wrought iron railings.All other windows above ground apart from the back attic bedrooms of end of terrace gable houses, which had sky lights were double opening sashes of large size.The 1911 census shows that the recently built houses were occupied by the upper stratum of the working classes with a high proportion of white collar workers and school teachers.The lower strata of the working classes had to await the building of council estates in the 1920s and 1930s to obtain three and four-bedroom houses with a bathroom and garden.The large halls were separated by sliding panels which could be drawn back to create a single space of about 2,900 sq ft. which was used for social events and public meetings.Flues from the four fireplaces were carried to a single central chimney stack supported by an arch (hidden in the roof space) across the stair hall.Some features of the building prefigured, on a smaller scale, Andrews and Pepper's design for the grammar school in Manor Row (1872).The bell turret was finished in 1874 when ICBS paid its grant towards the costs Press articles covering the dedication[26] and consecration[27] ceremonies provide a detailed account of the architecture.The church occupied the dominant site in Ripley Ville and with the west gable apex 70 ft above street level the external appearance was very impressive.ft.(the projecting end of terrace houses were slightly larger) with a frontage of about 18 ft. On the ground floor front was a living room containing a range.To the rear was a scullery with a sink and access to a back yard containing an ash house, coal store and a gate to a service road.[35] Initially there was no public house but residents could drink at the Locomotive Inn (which predated Ripley Ville) at No 7 Ellen Street or in Hall Lane at the Bowling Hotel or any of the four beer retailers recorded there in Smiths Directory.[39] Speeches were made by officers of the Bradford Industrial Society and by the Rev A.B Cunningham, a travelling lecturer of the University Extension Movement.[41] With services to Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Wakefield and intermediate villages and suburbs the station expanded commercial and job opportunities for the residents.Bradford Corporation (who were wholly in favour of the scheme and deeply regretted its abandonment) agreed to buy all the land acquired by the Midland.(Mainly authored by Stanley Wardley, the city's Chief Engineer) The plan envisaged large scale demolition of 19th-century houses in Bowling and redevelopment for "light industrial" use.In recent years (2014) even some major railway engineering features have been obliterated and it is now difficult to see how former land use relates to the modern landscape.He provides a history of the dye works and in his references to Ripley Ville gives details of the rental purchase scheme and its abandonment.Cudworth's "Historical Notes on the Bradford Corporation " provides an account of the development of water and sewage works and the building by-laws.Richardson's "Geography of Bradford" (1976) provides a modern spatial analysis and shows the impact of earlier transport and mining features on the location of subsequent industrial and residential developments.A paper "All Change" (1986) presented to the Bradford Society of Antiquaries describes how the Midland Railway Company's scheme for a through line led to divided ownership of the Ripley Ville estate.Cafin's remit from the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments was to record extant buildings so such an absence is understandable: Ripley Ville had been demolished twenty years before the time of her survey.The expansion of the scheme to include a school and church were placed in the context of Henry Ripley's transition from local to national politician.
West YorkshireWest BowlingBradfordEnglandHenry William Ripleymodel villageAkroydonEdward AkroydSaltaireBowling Iron WorksTitus SaltSamuel ListerIsaac HoldenWorsbroughalmshousespail closetsBritish and Foreign School SocietyCharles MawerEast BowlingBroomfields, BradfordAckroydenBowling IronworksBack-to-back housesHistoric EnglandNational Heritage List for EnglandCity of BradfordAddinghamAllertonApperley BridgeBaildonBarkerendBelle VueBen RhyddingBingleyBingley RuralBingley wardBolton and UndercliffeBowling and BarkerendBradford MoorBroomfieldsBurley in WharfedaleBurley WoodheadButtershawCity wardClaytonCottingleyCraven wardCrossflattsCross RoadsCullingworthCutler HeightsDenholmeDudley HillEast MortonEastburnEccleshillEldwickEsholtFrizinghallForster SquareGilsteadGirlingtonGreat HortonGreengatesHainworthHardenHaworthHaworth, Cross Roads and StanburyHeatonHolme WoodIdle and ThackleyIlkleyIngrowKeighleyKeighley CentralKeighley EastKeighley WestLaisterdykeLaycockLittle GermanyLittle HortonLong LeeLonglandsLow MoorLumbfootManninghamMenstonOakenshawOakworthOldfieldOxenhopeQueensburyRavenscliffeRiddlesdenRyecroftSandy LaneShipleySilsdenStaithgateStanburySteetonSteeton with EastburnThackleyThornburyThorntonThornton and AllertonThorpe EdgeTollerTong wardTong villageTridentTyersalWharfedale wardWibseyWilsdenWindhill and WroseWorth ValleyBradford-Keighley Youth ParliamentCity of Bradford Metropolitan District CouncilAiredaleBradford DaleBrontë CountryHarden MoorHeaton WoodsIlkley MoorJudy Woods