Ripple, Kent

Ripple, also known as 'Ripple Vale', is an ancient village and civil parish of Saxon origin Dover District of Kent, England and is the second smallest village in Kent.

Ripple parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin; the village pub is The Plough.

In June 2024 the closure of the Plough was announced.

The meaning of the word Ripple, stems from Old English, meaning 'A strip of land'.

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.

The Roman earthworks were dug (near the site of the present church) during the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar’s army which landed in Deal and camped here in 55BC.

John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, the commander of the first British Expeditionary Force in World War I was born there in 1852, and is buried at the village church. His sister Charlotte Despard, the suffragist, novelist and Sinn Féin activist, also lived in Ripple.