Ripley Ville

Ripley Ville

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Fig.1 Ripley Ville, Bowling in West Yorkshire

File:Ripley Ville alms houses.jpg

Fig. 2 Ripley Ville Alms Houses

Ripley Ville (later also Ripleyville) was an “estate” of ”model houses“ for members of the working classes. It was located in the district of Broomfields within the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.

Founded in 1866 it was built for the industrialist and politician Henry William Ripley. Initially Ripley Ville was intended as a commercial housing development but when completed in 1881 it had many of the aspects of an "industrial model village" - but residents were not limited to H.W. Ripley’s employees. It can be compared with the nearly contemporary Akroydon built by H.W Ripley's friend and former schoolmate Edward Akroyd, and with Saltaire

Ripley Ville contained 196 "workmen's cottages", a school with a teacher's house, a church, allotment gardens and (on a separate site about a half mile distant) a vicarage and 10 alms houses. The alms houses still remain. All other buildings had been demolished by 1970

H W Ripley and the Bradford Building by-laws.

By the 1860s H.W Ripley was managing partner of the Bowling Dye works, founded by his grandfather in 1808. Since 1840 he had built up the business from a very small concern to the biggest dye works in Yorkshire. He had also built up a landholding of about 130 acres, centred on the dye work. To the dye works income he had added income from a series of mills rented out on a "room and power" basis, and from a water works and a gas works. He was recognised as be one of Bradford's "big four" industrialists along side Titus Salt, Samuel Lister and Isaac Holden. As a councillor, JP and public figure H W Ripley was deeply involved in the debates which engaged the attention of the recently (1847) incorporated borough council and the citizens.

After four decades of rapid economic and population growth Bradford had some of the worst housing conditions in the UK and about the lowest life expectancy. In 1853 Titus Salt responded to the problems by rebuilding his mills outside of the town and embarking on the development of his "model community" of Saltaire. Bradford council responded with a series of building bylaws (1855, 1860, 1865 and 1870) intended to ensure that new houses were of a decent standard. The bylaw of 1860 banned construction of back to back houses which had been the predominant form for the previous 30 years. The building interest mounted a campaign to have the bylaw rescinded, maintaining that it was impossible to build "through" houses at a price which working class people could afford and as evidence pointed to the precipitate fall in new building starts. In 1865 Bradford council issued a revised by-law which again allowed construction of "back to backs" provided they met stringent requirements for space, ventilation, water supply and sanitary provision. These "tunnel backs" became the predominant form of working class houses built in Bradford during the next 20 years.

H. E Ripley was not convinced by the case put by the speculative builders. In Nov 1865 he issued a prospective for the construction of 300 "workers cottages" on his own land. They would be four bedroom "through houses" with yards to the rear and gardens to the front and each would be equipped with an internal WC. The houses were primarily intended for sale to small landlords and owner occupiers with a provision for rental purchase and some renting. The Bradford firm Andrews and Pepper were appointed architects

The building program.

Planning permission to build 254 houses was granted 24th Jan 1866. Four invitations to tender subsequently appeared in the Bradford Observer ( the first 0n 23/3/1866 and the forth and final on 21/3/1867) amounting in total to 200 houses. The reduction in the number of houses to be built in part reflected the decision to include a school on the site. Planning approval for the school was given 8th June 1867.

All the houses were completed by early 1868 and the school was in use by autumn that year. Houses built under contracts 1 and 2 were completed with internal WCs (in the cellar). There was then a change of plan (Spring 1867) and houses built under contracts 3 and 4 had external ash closets. Contract 1 and 2 houses were retrofitted with external ash closets and the WCs removed. The reasons for this change of plan remain obscure.{POV-Check}

On 11th Dec 1868 the Bradford Ten Churches Building Committee announced its intention of building the tenth church of the campaign in Ripley Ville on land donated by Henry Ripley. T.H and F Healey were appointed architects. St Bartholomew’s Church was consecrated in Dec 1872. The architecture and townscape of Ripley Ville was then complete and remained substantially unchanged until demolition a century afterwards.

In 1875 a vicarage for the incumbent of St Bartholomew’s was completed on land given by Henry Ripley at the extreme southern boundary of his landholding. At that time it was a semi rural environment. In 1881 a group of ten alms houses were built at the cost of (by now) Sir Henry Ripley on a plot close to the Vicarage. Six of these alms houses replaced alms houses built on a site which had been partly taken over by the Thornton Railway.

The site of Ripley Ville and the architectural scheme

Fig.3 Ripley Ville - the surrounding landscape in 1855

In 1865 more than 80 acres if Ripley's land holding were still undeveloped. The area was dotted with former mine workings of the Bowling Iron company. Several old mine shafts had been converted to wells and provided the dye works with its essential soft water supply. Fig 3 shows that the site chosen for Ripley Ville had the disadvantage of an irregular shape and steep gradients - the central street of the development fell 40 feet over a distance of 300 feet. However, it had the advantages of being relatively free of old mine workings and contiguous to the recent urban development along Hall Lane which gave easy access to the town entre.

The gradients and the irregular shape of the site determined the architectural scheme adopted for the development. The scheme is indicated in Fig.4 which is based on a 1:500 OS map, surveyed in 1889 and published in 1891. To make the architectural scheme clearer the diagram is presented with east at the top.

There were 13 terraces of houses along 4 residential streets set out on a north - south axis. The outer streets, Vere Street and Ripley Terrace had houses only on one side and full width carriageways. The internal Sloane and Saville Streets had 6ft pedestrian walkways separating the front gardens. The cobbled back streets provided access for wheeled traffic and contained the mains services (water, gas, sewerage). Three streets on an east-west access (Ellen Street, Linton Street and Merton Street) provided access to the residential streets and locations for retail premises and public buildings.

Fig.4 Ripley Ville site map and house types

The development include a total 0f 196 houses with three sizes of house. There were 25 of the largest size "Type 1" houses in two terraces. There were 142 of the intermediate "Type 2" houses in nine terraces and 32 of the smallest "Type 3" houses in two terraces. The front elevations (apart from a small difference in width) were identical for each type, and therefore permitted a unified architectural scheme.

Although the church was completed 6 years after the houses and school and by other architects it seems as though Andrews and Pepper's scheme anticipated a major building at this point. The impact of the completed scheme was quite dramatic, especially when viewed from the east. Ripley terrace was virtually level along its 750 ft length. The slight fall of about 4ft was compensated for by building up gardens walls in the lower section so that doors and windows remained in alignment. Behind the south section of the terrace the school buildings rose above the house roofs with the pinnacle of the clock tower about 50 feet above the roof ridge of the houses. Behind the central and north sections of Ripley Terrace the roof lines of the successive terraces rose in echelon with the gable of St Bartholomew’s rising 40 feet above the highest roofs. The pyramidical theme was repeated in the front elevations of the terraces.

Architectural punctuation of the front elevations of the terraces was provided by tall gables to the terminal and central houses. In the north section the outer terraces also had gables intermediate between the central and terminal houses. Different designs of gable window were used in different terraces. Left and right handed houses were used to provide symmetry to each terrace. In a left handed house the front door was to the left of the ground floor window. In a right handed house it was to the right. The handedness changed in the centre of the terrace and was marked by a gable house. Between the gable house and its partner was a double chimney stack. Thus there were no chimney stacks on the terminal walls of the terrace and each terminal wall had a front door adjacent to it.

Externally the houses were of hammer dressed Bradford stone set in black ash mortar with sills and lintels of sawn stone. Brick was used for internal walls and liners to external walls but was nowhere externally visible. House roofs were Welsh slate. Privies were of hammer dressed stone with Elland Flag roofs. Back yard walls were of hammer dressed stone, about 4ft 6in high and with triangular capstones. Ripley Terrace and Vere Street front garden walls were about 3ft high with broad rounded capstones surmounted by wrought iron railings. Gardens of the internal "front" streets had wrought iron railings of about 3ft 6in height set on stone plinths and with wrought iron gates.

Internal staircases from the ground floor were constructed of stone. Attic stair cases were timber. Cellars and back rooms had stone flagged floors. In keeping with other Andrews and Pepper buildings all materials were of excellent quality and standards of workmanship and finish very high.

Fig.5 Ripley Ville house plans and sections

All three types of house had two attic bedrooms, two first floor bedrooms and a cellar. Ground floor designs varied between the types.

Type 1 houses had a frontage of 16ft 7 inches and a depth of 28 feet. They had two large ground floor rooms and a scullery in a back extension. The cellar was fitted out as a "cellar kitchen" with a sink and range. The cellar also contained a WC and a coal store.

Type 2 houses had a frontage of 15ft 9” and a depth of 24 feet. They had a large front ground floor room and a smaller back room. The basement contained a storage cellar, WC (in houses built under contracts 1 and 2) and coal store.

Type 3 houses had a frontage of 16ft 7” and a depth of 20 feet. They had a single "through room" and small scullery on the ground floor. The basement contained a storage cellar, a coal store and a second enclosure. No WCs were ever fitted to type 3 houses, all of which were built under contracts 3 and 4.

All habitable rooms in the Ripley Ville houses had gas lighting. The streets were also gas lit. Initially the gas supply came from Ripley's gas works in Mill Lane. All habitable rooms had a fireplace or range. In the bedrooms fireplaces were decorative cast iron. Type 1 houses had ranges in the back room and cellar kitchen and a polished slate fireplace in the ground floor front room. Type 2 houses had ranges in both ground floor rooms. Type 3 houses had a range in the single ground floor room.

The Ripley Ville Houses in Context,

Much of the debate as what extent Ripley Ville houses were superior to the average working class houses of the time has centred on whether they had WCs and whether the WCs were internal. In Nov 1866 Mr Gott, the corporation’s chief engineer gave evidence to the Pollution of Rivers Commission. He said that there were 26,000 houses in the town and 19,500 privies – of which 1500 were WCs, 6,000 ash pits and 12,000 pail closets. From this it is clear that 13,000 houses (half of all houses) did not have sole use of a privy and that WCs were installed in only 5.7% of the total housing stock. WC’s were a middles class preserve and unknown in working class houses - other than the recently completed houses in Ripley Ville.

A more useful comparator is habitable rooms per house and usable space in sq ft. The typical working class cottage built in the 1850s was a “one up and one down” The houses in Fig.4 in Hird Street (built C1859) are typical of this type- one is included in the table as a comparison with the Ripley Ville houses.

Measure	Type 1 house	Type 2 house	Type 3 house	c1858 back	c1875 tunnel back
Usable space sq ft	1135	853	703	401	510-620
Habitable rooms	7	6	5	2	3-4

Also included in the table is an example of the "Tunnel back to backs” which were built in large numbers in Bowling after the 1865 bylaw change. The tunnel gave access to the rear two houses and a group of four privies. The ground floor had a good size living room and a “side scullery” with access to the “tunnel”. Houses had either 2 or 3 bedrooms, the third bedroom being in a “flying free hold” over the tunnel. Even the three bedroom type was considerably smaller than the type 3 Ripley Ville house. The sizes of the type 1 and 2 Ripley Ville houses were comparable to contemporary lower middle class houses.

Ripley Ville School

Fig.6 Ripley Ville school north elevation

The school building, like the houses, was designed by Andrews and Pepper. It was in a gothic revivalist style. The hall and classrooms were on a single level with a boiler house and service rooms in a small basement. The teachers house had 4 levels and apart from ornate external stone carving was similar in size and features to the "workers cottages". There was a very decorative clock tower, about 75ft in fight, with a formal entrance door. Each of the two play grounds had a pupils' entrance: girls and infants in the east play ground and junior boys in the west playground. Boundary walls gates and railings to the street frontages were similar to those of the workmen's cottages. The school was run by the non denominational British and Foreign School Society

The fine and spacious assembly hall had a stage and was designed for use as a parish hall and for public meetings and social events in addition to its school functions.

Some features of the building prefigure on a smaller scale Andrews and Pepper's design for the Grammar School in Manor Row (1872).

St Bartholomew’s Church

Fig.7 Plan of St Bartholomew's church

St. Bartholomew's was the last church constructed under the Bradford Ten Churches building Campaign. The campaign was inspired by Mr Charles Hardy, managing partner of the Low Moor Iron works and a leading Anglican layman.Henry Ripley agreed to provide the site at no cost after he and Charles Hardy had conducted an inspection in 1868. The outcome cost of "in excess of £7000" was largely met by donations from the Hardy family. In 1870 the partnership of T. H and F. Healey were appointed architects. Planning permission was given that year and the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) approved the design and a grant towards the cost. Site preparation works (involving some large scale engineering) started immediately. The foundation stone was laid at a service of dedication in April 1871 and the church was consecrated in December 1872. At that stage the Bell Turret was still uncompleted. It was finished in 1874 when ICBS paid its grant towards the costs

Press articles covering the dedication and consecration ceremonies provide a detailed account of the architecture. The style was a simplified "Early English". External masonry was Bradford stone with a roof of green Westmoreland slate. The churchyard had low stone walls with decorative wrought iron railings and gates. Internally the church walls were of pressed brick with moulded capitals to the columns and arches of polychrome brick - reportedly, "a very cheerful effect". There were 740 sittings, provided free.

The building occupied the dominant site in Ripley Ville and with the west gable apex 70ft above street level the external appearance was very impressive.

The Vicarage and Alms Houses

Initially the first vicar, Mr Rice, lived in a rented house at 22 Edmund Street. This fine house still exists. The parish, under the leadership of Henry Ripley, decided a more permanent arrangement was needed. Henry Ripley donated the half acre site located on New Cross Street about half a mile south of the church. The funds, about £1,300, were raised by the parish. The vicarage was completed in 1875 and was on the scale of a "gentleman's residence".

In 1881 a terrace of ten alms houses was built in New Cross Street a short distance from the vicarage. Six of these replaced alms houses built in 1849 whose site had been partly taken over by GNR line from Ripleyville to Thornton. The alms houses are grade 2 listed.

By the late 1920s the vicarage had become uneconomic. Vicars salaries were no longer sufficient for several domestic servants and the site may have been affected by mining subsidence. It was sold to a property developer who had demolished the vicarage and replaced it with a row of new houses by 1930.

The parish took the lease of a detached house at no 205 Hall Lane until 1942 when on amalgamation of the St Jude's parish with St Bartholomew's the former St Judes vicarage became available.

Retail premises - shops and pubs

Six end of terrace houses adjoining Linton Street and 2 adjoining Ellen street were in use as shops at the time of the 1871 census. All except No 2 Vere Street continued in commercial use until demolition. The Linton street premises were given Linton Street numbers (see Fig.3). Architectural and structural changes were in most cases carried out at the time of construction.

Henry Ripley would not allow the sale of beer in Ripley Ville. Initially there was no pub in the village but residents were able to get a drink at the Locomotive Inn (which predated the building of Ripley Ville) at No 7 Ellen Street.

During the 1870s the shop at No 2 Linton Street was joined to the adjacent house (40 Saville Street) and architectural modifications undertaken. The 8 bedroom building was run by Mrs. Gibson as a shop and "coffee tavern" and probably a temperance hotel. In the 1890s (after Henry Ripley's death) Mr. Benjamin Spenser obtained a beer license. Under the name "Gibson Hotel" it continued as the village pub until demolition.

In 1874 the Co-op opened a purpose built store at No 10 Ellen Street. This replaced a "temporary" store at No 5 Ellen Street. The new "Branch 11" was a very imposing building. It continued trading until demolition in 1960.

Early History

Henry Ripley's expectations for his Ripley Ville houses were not fully met. He had intended that the houses should in the main be for outright purchase – but very few, mainly the end terrace houses adapted for retail use, were purchased outright. A scheme for rental purchase was abandoned after a few years because of low take up. The majority of the houses were offered for rent but at first the take up was slow. Ripley’s political opponents accused him of charging “exorbitant rents”. The 1871 census returns bears out the slow take up and high rent levels. In one terrace of 13 houses 7 were still unoccupied. Overall 17 of the 196 properties were still unoccupied. 24 of the occupied houses were in multiple accommodation.

In 1868 the building society movement was still in its infancy. It was only in the first decade of the C20th that significant numbers of working class people in south Bradford could obtain a mortgage for house purchase

Press reports in the Bradford Observer give an impression of a very active community life in Ripley Ville being rapidly established. Both cricket and football teams were very successful in local leagues. Meetings and other events are reported as taking place in the school hall on a regular basis. There are numerous reports of teas and "tea evenings", usually with Henry Ripley hosting the event and making a speech. The opening of the newly built Co-op store was marked by a very well attended event at Ripley Ville school. Henry Ripley gave a speech of welcome and supported the aims of the co-operative movement. Speeches were made by officers of the Bradford Industrial Society and also by the Rev. Mr. A.B Cunningham, a travelling lecturer of the University Extension Movement. Other meetings were held to raise money for the vicarage and church organ, and to celebrate the installation of the organ in 1878. In 1881 when it was announced that the parish of St. Bartholomew's still had a debt of £800 Henry Ripley led the fund raising campaign and the debt was paid off in a matter of months. The tone of press reports show Henry Ripley greatly enjoying himself as leader of his new community

The Thornton Railway, of which Henry Ripley had been an enthusiastic proponent, opened in 1878. The following years the lines to Halifax and Keighley were completed and a new station, St Dunstan's opened at Ripley Ville. From this date Ripley Ville was a node on the expanding rail network. With services to Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Wakefield and innumerable intermediate villages and suburbs the new station greatly expanded commercial and job opportunities for Ripley Ville residents.

About the same time a new main sewer from "The Roughs" to central Bradford was completed by Bradford Corporation. The Ripley Ville sewer system, installed 1866-8 but out of use following the change of plan over WCs, was connected to the new main sewer. Subsequently the external ash closets of the Ripley Ville were converted to WCs.

Henry William Ripley died in early 1882. Most of his property, including the Ripley Ville estate, was then administered by a body of Trustees. The junior school ceased to operate in the early 1880s when the newly established Board Schools took its pupils. Ripley's Trustees and their estates office then occupied the former junior school accommodation. The infants school continued until just before WWI. Its premises continued in use as a parish hall and village social centre until after WW2.

Successive census results give a picture of a prosperous and stable community. Henry Ripley had achieved his aim of providing houses for the working classes but the census returns of 1881 and 91 show that the residents represented the upper stratum of working class occupations. White collar occupations were well represented, especially in the type 1 houses of Vere Street. Skilled craftsmen and self employed tradesmen were numerous, with the construction and engineering trades well represented. Some residents had become members of the middle classes. Mr. Edward Wright of no. 83 Ripley Terrace, described in earlier censuses, as a master mill-right, engineer and employer of labour, is described in later censuses as the owner of an engineers' tool supply company

Subsequent History

Fig.8 Vere Street houses 1956

In 1896 the Midland Railway obtained an act of Parliament authorising it to build a through mainline railway from its main line at Royston to connect with its existing tracks at Bradford Foster Square. The proposed line of railway passed under Ripley Ville. The Midland's cash offer of £6,000 for the purchase of Ripley property was unacceptable to the RipleyTrust who also felt that there was a direct threat to the soft water supply to the dye works. An Arbitration hearing in 1900 awarded the Ripley Trust £14,000 for 3 acres of land in Ripley Ville. This included 4 terraces of houses and a strip of land across Ladywell Fields. After another Act of Parliament in 1912 and several changes of plan the Midland Railway decided, in the changed economic circumstances after the Great War, to abandon the scheme. 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. This included, in addition to much land in the centre of the city, the four terraces of houses in Ripley Ville and Ladywell fields. Ladywell Fields were designated as a public park. Management of the four terraces of houses passed to the Borough's housing department.

With control of Ripley Ville rented houses divided between Ripley's Trustees and the Corporation there were no co-ordinated attempts to upgrade and modernise the estate. Both landlords followed a policy of minimum maintenance. Ripley's Trustees undertook no external painting after about 1920. Linton Street and Merton Street remained un-adopted. They had never been paved other than with a scattering of blast furnace slag. Vere Street, Ellen Street and the back streets had cobbled carriageways and flagged pavements and remained in a fairly decent state. The council "tarmaced" Ripley Terrace when it became a bus route.

There was no electricity supply to the houses until 1938 when supply cables were laid by the municipal power authority. Ripley's Trustees required tenants to contribute to the cost of connection (£60 in 1958) so take up was slow. Some houses still used gas lighting in the 1960s. By that time the estate had a very neglected appearance. Removal of the iron gates and railings "for the war effort" in 1941 made maintenance of front gardens very difficult - especially in the internal rows where there were no garden walls.

In the mid 50s the corporation replaced the Ripley Ville sewers - as part of a scheme to re-route the main sewer from the Roughs to the town centre. The main sewer originally followed the course of the coal tramway: it was re-routed along Ripley Terrace to join a sewer in the recently (1930s) rebuilt Bolling Road.

In the late 1950s the corporations demolition program approached Ripley Ville. By 1958 the houses in Hird Street and most of those in Hall Lane had been demolished. The Ellen Street co-op and St Bartholomew's church had been demolished by 1962. In 1970 the Ripley Ville houses and School were demolished and the site leveled for redevelopment. There were few protests and no mention of the desirability of preserving an historical and architectural heritage.

Ripley Ville in the 21st Century

Fig.9 Ripley Ville locations

Apart from minor changes the pattern of land use on Ripley's land holdings and the built environment established at the time of Henry Ripley's death death continued into the 1960s and until the demolition of Ripley Ville in 1970. Subsequently Ripley's dye works and mills have also been demolished and redeveloped and previously undeveloped land has been built on. 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. Fig.9 shows some of the earlier features superimposed on a recent Ordnance Survey map.

References

Bibliography

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3. Bradford Directory (1872) Smiths Directory of Bradford 1872. Republished by Bank House Directories 2009 ICBN 9781904408482
5. Cafin, Lucy (1986) Worker's Houses in West Ylorkshire 1750-1920. HMSO ICBN 0 11 300002 2
7. Cudworth ,William (1882) Historical Notes on the Bradford Corporation. Republished Old Bradfordian Press
9. Cudworth,William (1888) Worstedopolis .Republished Old General Books Memphis
11. Cudworth,William (1891) Histories of Bolton and Bowling. Thomas Brear & Co Bradford
13. Cudworth, William (1891) Condition of the Industrial Classes. Collected articles from the Bradford Observer. Republished by Mountain Press 1977
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26. Richardson C (1976) A Geography of Bradford. University of Bradford ISBN 0 901945 19 6
28. Scruton, William (1889) Pen and Pencil Sketches of Old Bradford. Republished Mountain Press 1868
30. Sheeren, George (1986) Good Houses Built of Stone . Allenwood Books ISBN 0 947963 03 0
32. Sheeren, George (1990) The Victorian Houses of Bradford. Bradford Libraries ISBN 0-907734-21-9
34. Thornhill, John (1986) "All Change - Bradford's through railway scheme"' Bradford Antiquary 3rd series vol. 02 1986. Available at www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/antiquary/third/vol02/allchange.html
36. Walker, R L (2008) When was Ripleyville Built? SEQUALS, ISBN 0 9532139 2 7
38. Yorkshire Observer (1947) The Centenary Book of Bradford Published by YO and presented to Bradford Corporation

• William Cudworth (1) Historical Notes on the Bradford Corporation (1882)
• William Cudworth (2) Worstedopolis (1888)
• William Cudworth (3) Histories of Bolton and Bowling. (1891)
• C Richardson A Geography of Bradford (1976) ISBN 0 901945 19 6
• William Scruton Pen and Pencil Sketches of Old Bradford (1889)
• R L Walker When was Ripleyville Built? (2008) ISBN 0 9532139 2 7

External links

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