Ripley, United Kingdom

The Ripley area has been industrialised since the late 18th century. One of the earliest firms to take advantage of local mineral resources was the Butterley Company; it was formed in 1790 by Benjamin Outram and Francis Beresford, and Jessop and Wright joined as partners in 1791. Outram and Jessop were pioneering engineers, best known for their input into the railway industry and their engineering of the Cromford Canal. Outram developed the L-shaped flange rail and Jessop engineered the cast iron fish belly rail; the Little Eaton Gangway project was one of the engineering feats they completed. The engineering part of the company closed and the site of the Butterley Company was demolished in 2010; the company was latterly separated into three parts: Butterley Engineering, Butterley Brick and Butterley Aggregates. Over the last 200 years, these have specialised in steelworks, coal mining, quarrying, railway, foundry and brickworks. One of the best-known examples of the company's work is the arched roof of St Pancras railway station in London, restored as an international terminal. Post-2000 Butterley achievements were the design and construction of the Falkirk Wheel, a canal boat-lift funded by the Millennium Commission and the Spinnaker Tower, in Portsmouth Harbour, as the focus of its regeneration.

Ripley was also a mining community, with collieries owned by the Butterley Company until the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946. These included Ripley colliery (1863–1948), Brittain colliery (1918–1946), Ormonde 1908–1970, and other pits at Upper and Lower Hartshay, Whiteley, Waingroves, Bailey Brook, Exhibition, Loscoe, New Langley and Denby Hall.