Of all Ripley’s older pubs, The Thorn Tree is, externally anyway, the least altered. It looked much the same on photographs 100 or more years ago as it does today.

The pub took its name from the thorn tree (or possibly an elm tree) which stood outside it, under which Charles Wesley was supposed to have preached when he travelled through Ripley on 7^th June 1742.

The tree, and later the pub, were also used as a gathering place for agricultural workers looking for a place for the year at the annual hiring fair.

The tree seems to have been dead by 1893, and was apparently taken down in 1910, the trunk being exhibited in John Marshall’s Zoo in Oxford Street.

The first written reference to the Thorn Tree Inn is in 1806 when a licence was granted to owner John Staley. In the early part of the 19^th century it seems to have been a coaching inn like the Red Lion or the Cock, but it was also a meeting place for all kinds of organisations: the Oddfellows, the Masons and the Butterley Company for example, where groups (of men mainly) met to have a meal and discussion. In 1838, 40 gentlemen are reported to have dined in celebration of the coronation of Queen Victoria, whilst there were also flower and produce shows held there.

In the election riots of 1868, all the windows of the pub were broken (perhaps an indication that the pub and its owner were seen as part of the establishment) and Robert Whysall, the landlord, claimed damages of £6.

In 1877 Charles Eyre was offering coach services, catering for weddings, picnics and private parties, as well as a funeral business.

Like most pubs, the Thorn Tree was owned by various breweries during the twentieth century, but otherwise, little seems to have changed.