Thomas Ripley (1790-1852), a Lancaster-born (and buried), Liverpool-based merchant had planned to build a charity hospital (i.e. school) for fatherless children, emulating Christ's Hospital in London. He died before the project could begin, but his widow, Julia, donated £100,000 and laid the foundation stone in 1856. The building was completed at a cost of £30,000, opening on 3 November, 1864 (Julia Ripley's birthday) to accommodate 150 boys and 150 girls in two wings. Priority was given to orphans, then fatherless/motherless children, then children of 'indigent' persons, but another criterion was that they had to have lived within either 15 miles of Lancaster Priory or 7 miles of Liverpool Cathedral.

My perception of a Victorian orphanage is of a rather spartan institution, but Ripley's Hospital had a remarkable range of facilities, including a 16 ha farm and even a heated swimming pool. Before leaving, pupils received special training in trades for which they had shown aptitude; many successful businessmen and professionals were Ripley alumni.

The children were evacuated to Capernwray Hall in late 1939, when the Hospital was requisitioned by the army, and never really returned: after the war the Hospital remained in government use as an emergency teacher-training college until 1948, when it was considered that institutional orphanages were obsolete. The building became a National School, then Ripley Boys' (secondary modern) School, then merged with St. Thomas Girls' School in 1966 to become the present Ripley St. Thomas Church of England High School. It now has ~1,400 pupils and is generally considered to be the best state school in Lancaster.