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It is speculated that the Synod of Nidd, of AD 675, which was ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the re-installation of Wilfrid to the Archbishpric of York, may have taken place at Ripley. Evidence for this is slight - some archaelogical evidence in the shape of a pair of page turning tweezers and a bronze buckle, possibly the clasp from a book, are sugggestive. As is the site itself, the possibility of an early chapel and the lack of other suitable sites in the area.
In the Domesday book, Ripley is described as 'waste', but there is documentary evidence to show that a church existed at the beginning of the 13th Century. The first church to be built in Ripley was built half a mile to the south of the present church. This older building, also dedicated to All Saints', was abandonded in the mid to late 14th. Century due to structural instability, indeed it has been known as the 'Sinking Chapel'. Richard Muir, the landscape archaeologist, has suggested that the village itself may have been moved from the area around the old chapel to its present site at the same time.
The current building was started at the end of the 14th. Century, adjacent to the Market Square, on a plot known as 'Chantry Garth'. The chantry chapel was decorated by the statue of a kneeling priest placed in a niche in the wall. Such chantries were forbiddedn by Act of Parliament of 1559 and the building demolished in 1767, by which time the effigy of the priest was missing.
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The church contains a 'chest' tomb brought from the 'Sinking Chapel' with the remains of Sir Thomas Ingilby, died 1369, and his wife Edeline. His head rests on a 'Great Helm' and his feet on a dormant lion, the symbol of the resurrection. The feet of Lady Edeline rest on a pug dog, the symbol of fidelity.
On the outside east wall are several round depressions, possibly bullet holes from the execution of prisoners by the 'Roundheads' after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.