Population 372 2011 Census Region South East Sovereign state United Kingdom Local time Thursday 5:16 PM District Dover District UK parliament constituency Dover | OS grid reference TR345465 Country England Post town DEAL Shire county Kent Dialling code 01304 | |
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Weather 19°C, Wind SW at 16 km/h, 54% Humidity | ||
Ripple is a village in Kent, England. It is also known as Ripple Vale. The meaning of the word Ripple, stems from Old English, meaning 'A strip of land'.
Contents
Map of Ripple, UK
John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, the commander of the first British Expeditionary Force was born there in 1852, and is buried at the village church. His sister Charlotte Despard, the suffragist, novelist and Sinn Féin activist was also born in Ripple in 1844.
Ripple Primary School, the village's state school, closed in 2007 due to low attendance. Another school was also established in the parish, but was a specialised school for boys with Autism aged 6-18 years old.
The village has one local pub, The Plough, a traditional English Ale-House. There is also a windmill, which is being restored.
In the 1870s, Ripple was described as:
RIPPLE, a parish in Eastry district, Kent; near the coast, 2½ miles S W of Deal r. station. Post-town, Deal. Acres, 1, 134. Real property, £2, 676. Pop., 254. Houses, 51. The property is divided among a few. R. House, R. Court, and R. Vale are chief residences. Traces of a Roman entrenchment are a little to the N of the church; and another ancient entrenchment, anoblong of about ½ an acre, is called Dane Pits. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £278.* Patron, J. A. Johnson, Esq. The church was rebuilt in 1861; is in a mixed style, chiefly Norman; and has a tower and spire.
Population
According to the 2011 Census there were 199 males and 173 females living in the parish totaling 372 people.
The population of Ripple from 1801, is seen to have fluctuated in numbers from a population of 122, to a population of 265 in 1961. The parish of Ripple reached its highest population between 1801 and 1961, in 1911 with the population reaching 326. After this peak of population, it slowly started to decline but was on the rise again after 1951.The total population has risen considerably between 1801 and the last census of 2011, with there being a difference in population number of 250 people which is a large scale change.
Occupational Structure
The occupational structure from 1881, shows the different occupations that the residents of Ripple had adopted with the majority being involved in the agriculture sector. Males are seen to have the highest number of people working in agriculture at 40 in comparison to females which had none recorded doing this job. The job role of agriculture is the most common occupation for males. The number of people with unknown occupations was higher for females at 51 compared to males at just 4 people, with it not being the social normality for women to have occupations in this decade which stems to the century of the Victorians, where many women had to stay at home to look after the children while the men went to work for example on the farms. Their jobs could also be unofficial with them not wanting to have them recorded or even not fitting into a certain occupational role. The most common occupation for women that is officially titled was domestic service or offices, which could be considered to be a stereotypical job in the eyes of the current population.
Ethnicity
The ethnicity of those living in Ripple, is varied with the majority of its residents (343 people) being White British/English/Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish, and a small number being of other White ethnicity. The ethnicity of Other White residents, means that they could be either European or American or even Australian, with them having to have emigrated from these continents either as a result of political issues throughout the country or for a different lifestyle with it most likely being the latter. The location of Ripple also makes it an ideal location for those who are travelling from overseas with the Dover port being an estimated 20 minute drive away from the Parish. The remaining number of residents, is split into 4 White Irish, 1 Mixed Ethnicity of White and Asian, and 1 Asian as of 2011.
Ripplevale School
The school has reopened and is now serving as a school for special needs, mainly for those on the Autistic spectrum and those that are male aged 6-18 years old.The site of the school previously had other uses, including Ripple Vale House, which served a French family and was where the 1st Earl of Ypres was born. It also had many different uses after this including a prep school for boys from London called Upton House, a hotel and also a bed and breakfast before it was converted to Ripplevale School. Ripplevale School started out as an 'approved' school for boys by the Department of Education and Science in 1971. Boys were sent to the school by the courts for a variety of reasons, from ‘bunking off’ school to more delinquent and sometimes criminal activities. Pupils were originally taught in the main house in the rooms, but when the old stables of the house were demolished, purpose built buildings were created to accommodate the pupils and the staff and to take them away from the house during teaching for a better learning environment. The block has been extended over the years and now accommodates the English, IT, Domestic Science, science rooms and the library. This was further added to in the 1980s to gain an extra four classrooms. Once these changes had occurred to the teaching environments, the house was then used purely for residential accommodation with the pupils sleeping on the above two floors from the daily living room on the ground floor. Over the years, the school offered a full curriculum for its pupils, including access to CSEs and a range of other external examinations including GCSEs and A levels. The school used different methods to help with learning including a range of animals on the homestead that allowed the pupils to look after them and also engaging in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. The use of these was believed to help find new ways to engage the pupils in their educations. The class sizes have always been low with a capped size of around 7 pupils. Ripplevale School also purchased Ripple Primary School which closed down in 2007 due to low attendance, they then used this building to provide education for younger pupils on the autistic spectrum.