He was likely involved due to the nature of his mercantile work and how commonplace slave trading was during this era.

As a devout Christian, he was keen to establish a charity hospital, modelled on the Liverpool Blue Coat School.

The school appeared on CBBC's Blue Peter on 6 September 2012, with the programme also focusing on the 'Farm to Fork' initiative.

[4] Ripley St Thomas has been approved as a Technology college, adding to the Language status.

[6] Ripley St Thomas achieves outstanding results for GCSE and A level students every year, far outweighing the local authority and national average.