Ripley Castle

Ripley Castle is a large house composed of a mid-16th century tower built for Sir William Ingilby and ranges dating from 1783-86 built for Sir John Ingilby to designs by William Belwood. The building is constructed of coursed squared gritstone and ashlar with grey slate and stone slate roofs.

Plan and Arrangement

The 16th-century tower of three storeys and 1 by 2 bays stands at the south-west corner as a projecting wing to a two-storey 4 by 3-bay block. The tower is balanced by a three-storey 3 by 3-bay projecting wing on the south-east corner of this block, and an L-shaped kitchen and service wing which projects to the north (two bays) and east (three bays, linking to the courtyard ranges).

The 16th-Century Tower

The south front of the 16th-century tower has a horizontal board door on the left in a shallow pointed-arched doorway with moulded surround and spandrels, and a mullion and transom window of three round-headed lights with a hoodmould to the right, restored below transom level. A corbelled chimney stack projects at first floor on the right, and there is a narrow stair window to first and second floors on the left. The tower has diagonal buttresses and slightly projecting crenellated parapets on each side. A stair turret rises above parapet level on the left and has similar crenellations. There are four tall square stacks, also crenellated. The rear (north) wall of the tower is incorporated into the 18th-century structure.

The left return has a central projecting stack flanked by three tiers of three-light mullion windows with square hoodmoulds. Those to the ground floor, with transoms, are 18th- or 19th-century insertions. There is a narrow window to the right on each floor serving the stair turret, a projecting buttress on the left, and a diagonal buttress on the right.

The right return of the tower has a Gothick porch which conceals the ground floor with two blocked rectangular windows. The first floor on the left has a mullioned window of round-headed lights with a square hoodmould. Above this is a three-light oriel window, and to the second floor centre is a small blocked window within a deep bolection-moulded architrave.

The 18th-Century Ranges

The 18th-century ranges are built in a Gothick style, having a deep chamfered plinth, sash windows with glazing bars (many windows blind), roll-moulded copings to the battlemented blocking courses, and diagonal buttresses to the south-east wing.

The south facade has a canted Gothick porch of five arches to bay 1 with a wider central arch surmounted by a shield, a moulded cornice and crenellated blocking course over all. The four-bay recessed central range has projecting sill bands and sashes. The south-east wing windows all have four-centred arches and hoodmoulds. The central bay of this wing has a round-arched recess rising through two storeys, the first-floor window within having a chamfered surround. There are crenellated stacks.

The right return (forming the eastern facade) has the three-bay principal wing on the left with paired sashes with hoodmoulds to the centre of ground and first floors; the ground-floor central mullion was replaced by a steel prop at the time of resurvey. The remaining fenestration is as the south front, with diagonal buttresses. The centre and right consist of service ranges without ornament to windows or roofline.

The rear facade is composed of a right-hand five-bay block with a central semicircular bay containing principal rooms, and a projecting three-storey, five-bay service range to the left which is a continuation of the north wall of the coach-house and service range of the courtyard. The right-hand window on the first floor of this range is a Venetian window. The crenellated parapet does not continue across this facade. There are hipped roofs and tall multi-flue stacks.

The western garden facade has the 16th-century tower projecting slightly to the right, the four-bay 18th-century range to centre with sashes and sill bands except glazed double doors to the right below a large Venetian window. Recessed to the left is the three-bay service range, two storeys on this west face with segmental windows in round-arched recesses to ground floor and two blind recesses and one sash window to first floor. An inserted 16-pane window in the centre of this wall exposes the fact that it is a three-storey range.

Interior

The south-west tower contains much original mid-16th century panelling and early 17th-century plasterwork. The ground-floor library was entered from the south-west corner in the base of the stair turret which contains a stone newel staircase. The first-floor room was originally divided into an antechamber and inner room, both rooms being heated by fine Tudor-arched fireplaces. The walls have square oak panelling. The ceiling has fine plaster decoration: the underside of the beams is ornamented in high relief with friezes of maize and pomegranates in foliage, the panels between divided by mouldings into geometric shapes containing coats of arms, crowned heads and lions.

The upper room has early panelling composed of vertical planks set in a square framework. To the right of the stair door, a hidden door opens inwards into a crudely excavated recess dug out of the wall structure, probably a hideaway. 17th-century fragments of a carved wooden frieze mounted on the wall include one in situ dated 1555 and the remains of three or four more in Latin and English, including the Ingilby motto "Mon Droit" and the date 1549. The roof is ceiled with planks fastened behind moulded purlins and ridge to form a wide waggon-roof construction.

The 18th-century principal rooms are entered from the Gothick porch on the south front. The entrance hall has round-arched openings to the staircase hall to the left and an arched recess on the right containing a doorway to the morning room. It has a deep Classical frieze and ceiling cornice. The fluted Doric columns in antis at the north end of the hall are painted in imitation of marble.

The oval inner hall has walls painted in imitation of ashlar and the south-east rounded corner contains a hidden door giving access to the service passage. North of the inner hall, the Round Drawing Room has round-arched alcoves and a delicate plaster ceiling frieze. To the left of the Round Drawing Room is the Large Drawing Room, which has an elaborate plaster ceiling with winged sphinxes and figures possibly representing Sir John and Elizabeth Ingilby.

To the right of the Round Drawing Room is the Dining Room with a fine fireplace in veined and white marble. The flanking Ionic columns support an entablature with acanthus leaves and a reclining figure. The Morning Room is entered across the passage from the dining room via a concealed door and from the door on the right of the entrance hall. The north wall contains an arched recess in an architrave which meets the ceiling cornice and frieze with swags and figures in relief.

The cantilevered staircase in the semicircular hall has slender cast-iron balusters and moulded handrail. The walls are painted similarly to the entrance hall. It is lit by the fine Venetian window which contains armorial glass by William Peckitt made in 1784-85. The window is constructed of paired fluted columns in antis with a deep entablature with triglyphs and modillioned cornice.

The ground and first-floor doors are six-panel, of pine painted to imitate mahogany, in Classical doorcases.

Historical Context

The Ingilby family had estates in Lincolnshire when Thomas Ingilby married Edeline Thweng in 1320. The medieval buildings were recorded in four paintings circa 1780 and followed approximately the lines of the 18th-century house. The west walls of the entrance hall and the north and east walls of the Morning Room are thought to be the fabric of the earlier hall.

Sir William Ingilby was Treasurer of Berwick in 1557 and spent much of his time in the Borders during the 1540s and 1550s during a period of extensive political upheaval. The tower reflects the style of building in that area at that time, although the existing openings do not suggest a defensive purpose. The plasterwork in the first-floor room dates from 1603 when King James VI of Scotland stayed at the castle on his way to his coronation as James I of England.

Sir John Ingilby undertook the transformation of the medieval buildings with some regret at the destruction of the ancient house. The Gothick style of the exterior reflects his and Belwood's interest but the interior is Classical in the style of the time. William Belwood (1738-1800) was paid for work at Ripley throughout the 1780s. He designed the entrance hall, staircase and drawing rooms, following the style of his work at Newby Hall. Sir John borrowed £12,000 to pay for the work and in 1794 he fled to Berne to escape his creditors and the newly built house was boarded up until 1803. The renovation begun on his return was continued after his death in 1815 by his son William (died 1854), who made extensive alterations to the grounds and village.