Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley Borough of Derbyshire and existed at the time of the Domesday book. The Ripley area has been industrialised since the late 18th century. In the Middle Ages, Ripley was just a few stone cottages and farms around the village green with a few dwellings further afield. It is now a thriving community in his home to the Midland Railway Butterley formerly the Midland Railway Centre, a railway preservation trust dedicated to preserving locomotives, rolling stock and other items related to the Midland Railway.