Harry Ripley, builder

[frits_stuur]

As a frequent visitor to my daughter, who lives in Dodd Street, and as a bit of an amateur historian, I am very interested in accumulating data about the history of Dodd Street and the surrounding area.

 

In the Register of Approved Building Plans in Sheffield Archives, I find an entry for 4 August 1899, that H. Ripley, of Penistone Road, applied for 87 houses in Dodd Street, Ripley Street, Trickett Road and Hatton Road.

 

The Register does not contain any information that these 87 houses were ever actually built; most of the terraced housing in those streets that is presently still there was built about a dozen years later by William Johnson Patchett (1875-1931).

 

Still, H. Ripley becomes of interest to me, as connected at least potentially with the early history of Dodd Street.

 

Peter Harvey, in his book Street Names of Sheffield (2001), writes about Ripley Street that it was named after "Harry Ripley, builder, contractor, brick manufacturer, and land owner. He lived at Wadsley House in 1900, and a company called Hillsborough Estates Ltd. was formed to buy and develop his land."

 

In his 2001 book Mr Harvey, whom I believe to be a regular contributor to the Sheffield Star newspaper, does not document his sources for the information he provides. I have myself tried to find data about Harry Ripley, both in Sheffield Archives and in the Local Studies library. It may well be that I do not know where to look for the relevant information; but at least I have not been able to replicate Harvey's findings about Ripley. All I seem to be able to get is that he was first included in White's Register for 1895-1896, as a Builder, and with Owlerton pl., in Owlerton as his address. In White's for 1898 Ripley is then registered as living in Hillsborough, Wadsley Bridge, "h. Parsons Cross" (h. for house?); and finally, in White's for 1902, Harry Ripley lives at 21 Marlborough av, Wadsley.

 

I wonder whether anyone on Sheffield Forum knows either where Mr Harvey got his information on Harry Ripley from, in the hope that that / those source(s) might supply more information about Ripley; or whether anyone knows more about Ripley themselves, and might be willing to share those data. I am particularly eager to know why Ripley's plans for 87 houses in Dodd Street and the area did not apparently get carried out.

[HughW]

The following is from The Sheffield Local Register, a contemporary annual digest of news stories from the local newspapers.

 

28 Sep 1900

Meeting of the creditors of Harry Ripley, a speculating builder, who failed with liabilities amounting to about £70,000, over which, however, the debtor estimated there would be a surplus of assets amounting to £26,000.

 

One other reference...

 

19 Jul 1900

Mr. H. Ripley, builder, of Penistone road, fined £2. 10s. and 7s. costs for erecting eleven houses in Eden street without having first sent in the plans to the city surveyor for approval.

 

Hugh