Post Office Town Hall

SE 2860-2960 8/88 15.3.66

RIPLEY MAIN STREET (east side) Town Hall and Post Office (formerly listed separately as Hotel de Ville and Post Office)

GV II

Town Hall and Post Office, 1854 for Louisa, the widow of Sir William Amcotts Ingilby as the final building in the estate village. Coursed squared gritstone and ashlar, grey slate roof. A tall single-storey hall 1 bay wide and 5 bays long with recessed flanking bays. In an ornate Gothic style. Moulded plinth. The main entrance is on the north side: 5 steps up to the central double-board doors in an elaborate battlemented porch with angle buttresses, crocketted finials and squirrel and boar's head motifs-. The flanking and first-floor windows are of 2 cusped lights under deep square hoodmoulds,a narrow door into the hall-far right. Continuous first- floor and eaves string course. Battlemented parapet, small chimney stack far right. Rear: 5 steps up to a board door in a moulded Tudor arch; 3- light window left; 3 windows, of 2, 1 and 2 lights above. Left return: the stonework is rock-faced ashlar; a massive 5-light Perpendicular window is flanked by corner turrets. Right return (to street): central gabled bay with a 2-tier canted bay window, centre, which has cusped lights in 2 tiers and an inscription below the crenellated parapet: 'HOTEL / DE VILLE / 1854'. Flanking octagonal battlemented turrets and crow-stepped gable with chimney at apex and inscription in moulded architrave with hoodmould, below an angel holding a shield, which reads: 'THIS / TOWN HALL / was commenced by / Sir Wm Amcotts Ingilby Bar / For the use and benefit / of the inhabitants. It was / completed by his widow / in Honour of his Memory'. The French name for the town hall reflects Sir William's long association with and interest in France and Switzerland. The building unites the architectural features of the Castle and the Church, although the latter was not restored until 1862. The crenellations and octagonal buttresses imitate the roofline of the earliest parts of the Castle, while the decorated windows and the finials are very similar to those in the church. The squirrel and boar's head above the entrance are also on the parapet of the Orangery (qv). The interior not inspected at resurvey.

Listing NGR: SE2847860596