The concept of Friendly Societies is a familiar one: working people paid in a small amount each week, and then received money in the case of sickness or bereavement. Almost all the Societies were all male, with Masonic-like structures and names like the Oddfellows or the Druids.

There was, however, at least one local female Friendly Society: The Loyal United Sisters. It seems to have been linked to the Druids, and started in the 1840s. Lodge number 29, the Princess Royal, was founded in 1845, meeting at the Three Horse Shoes in Ripley whose landlord was William Illsley.

A newspaper report from May 1845 reported that over 100 women, wearing their ceremonial regalia, walked in procession to the church, headed by the Codnor Park brass band. After the service, they walked round the town, ending at the Three Horse Shoes, where a dinner awaited them, with music and dancing afterwards.

This kind of thing only happened once a year: the real business of the Society can be seen in the accounts of the Alfreton Society published in 1862. Most of the money went to payments to members who were ill, whilst five women are named as receiving payments on the death of their husbands. This would have been especially important in Ripley, where most men worked in dangerous jobs in the pits or the ironworks. The Society also paid for the services of a doctor so that members who were ill did not have to pay.

The Ripley Society doesn’t seem to have lasted long: unlike mill towns like Belper, most women in Ripley did not work, so had no money to lay out. Also, In the later Victorian period, it was frowned upon for women to visit a pub, even for a Friendly Society meeting.