Ripley is a small town in the Amber Valley area of Derbyshire in England.
The surrounding area has been industrialised since the late 18th century. One of the earliest companies to take advantage of the mineral resources around Ripley was the Butterley Company. The company was formed in 1790 and still survives to the day in the guise of Butterley Engineering, Butterley Brick and Butterley Aggregates (now all separate companies). Over the last 200 years the companies have been a steelworks, coal mining, quarrying, railway, foundry, brickworks. One of the early, and most well known, examples of the work of the company includes the graceful arched roof of St. Pancras Station in London. A recent major achievement was the design and construction of the Falkirk Wheel, a spectacular canal boat lift funded by the Millennium Commission.
The inventor Barnes Wallis lived for a time in Ripley and now has one of the town's parks named after him.
Constructed under the premises of the Butterley Company is a 3 mile long canal tunnel for the Cromford Canal. The central section of the canal is currently disused, but a charitable fund has been formed to reopen the canal.
Ripley is also home to the Midland Railway Centre a steam preservation trust, dedicated to preserving locomotives, rolling stock and other items related to the Midland Railway.
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