Ripple comes from the Old English ‘ripel’ meaning a ‘strip of land’.
Ripple parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Mary the
Virgin. The Normans built it in the 12th century. In 1800, Edward Hasted described
the Ripple church as ‘small and neat. It consists of a nave and a chancel; having
a small wooden tower at the west end, on which is a handsome spire. There are two
bells in it. There are no marks of antiquity in this church, excepting in the circular
arch over the south door, which is very antient, and probably belonged to an older
building’. However, in 1861 the architect Arthur Ashpitel rebuilt the church on its
original Norman foundations in a Romanesque style, in imitation of St Nicholas, Barfreston.
