Rugby, Warwickshire
Encyclopedia
Rugby is a market town
in Warwickshire
, England, located on the River Avon
. The town has a population of 61,988
(2001 census) making it the second largest town in the county. The enclosing Borough of Rugby
has a population of 91,600 (2005 estimate).
Rugby is 13 miles (21 km) east of Coventry
, on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with Northamptonshire
and Leicestershire
.
The town is credited with being the birthplace of rugby football
.
Early Iron age
settlement existed in the Rugby area, and a few miles outside what is now Rugby, existed a Roman
settlement known as Tripontium
. Rugby was originally a small Anglo-Saxon
farming settlement, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book
of 1086 as Rocheberie. Rugby obtained a charter to hold a market in 1255, and soon developed into a small country market town
.
The name's likeliest origin is Anglo-Saxon
Hrōca burh or similar = "Rook fort", where Rook may be the bird or may be a man's name. Another theory is that the name is originally derived from an old Celtic name Droche-brig meaning "wild hilltop". The change to -by is because of Viking
influence: there are other place names ending in -by in the area ('By' meaning town in Norwegian
, Swedish
and Danish
even today).
Rugby School
was founded in 1567 by money left in the will of Lawrence Sheriff
, a locally born grocer, who moved to London and earned his fortune. Rugby School
was originally intended as a school for local boys, but over time became a mostly fee-paying private school. The Lawrence Sheriff School
was eventually founded in the late 19th century to carry on Sheriff's original intentions.
Rugby remained a sleepy country market town until the 19th century and the coming of the railways. In 1838 the London and Birmingham Railway
was constructed around the town, and in 1840 the Midland Counties Railway
made a junction with the London and Birmingham at Rugby. Rugby became an important railway junction, and the proliferation of rail yards and workshops attracted workers to the town. Rugby's population grew from just 2,500 in 1835, to over 10,000 by the 1880s.
In the 1890s and 1900s heavy engineering
industries began to set up in the town, and Rugby rapidly grew into a major industrial centre. Rugby expanded rapidly in the early decades of the 20th century as workers moved into the town. By the 1940s, the population of Rugby had grown to over 40,000.
In the postwar years, Rugby became well served by the motorway network, with the M1
and M6
merging close to the town.
, which is played throughout the world. The invention of the game is credited to William Webb Ellis
whilst breaking the existing rules of a football match played in 1823 at Rugby School
, which is near the centre of Rugby.
Rugby School is one of England's oldest and most prestigious public schools, and was the setting of Thomas Hughes
's semi-autobiographical masterpiece Tom Brown's Schooldays
. A substantial part of the 2004 dramatisation of the novel, starring Stephen Fry
, was filmed on location at Rugby School.
Rugby is also a birthplace of the jet engine
. In April 1937 Frank Whittle
built the world's first prototype jet engine at the British Thomson-Houston
works in Rugby, and between 1936-41 based himself at Brownsover Hall
on the outskirts of the town, where he designed and developed early prototype engines. Much of his work was also carried out at nearby Lutterworth
. Holography
was also invented in Rugby by the Hungarian
inventor Dennis Gabor
in 1947.
In the 19th century, Rugby became famous for its once hugely important railway junction which was the setting for Charles Dickens
's story Mugby Junction
.
The town also inspired Thomas Hughes
, (author of Tom Brown's Schooldays
) to set up a colony in America, for the younger sons of the English gentry, who couldn't inherit under the laws of primogeniture. He named the town Rugby. The town of Rugby, Tennessee
still exists today.
The modern town of Rugby is an amalgamation of the original town with the former villages of Bilton
, Hillmorton
, Brownsover
and Newbold-on-Avon
which were incorporated into Rugby in 1932 when the town became a borough
; all except Brownsover still have their former village centres. Rugby also includes the areas of New Bilton
, Overslade
and Hillside. The spread of Rugby has nearly reached the villages of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore
, Cawston
, Dunchurch
and Long Lawford
.
The town centre is mostly Victorian
and early 20th century, however a few much older buildings survive, along with some more modern developments. Rugby was described by Nikolaus Pevsner
as 'Butterfieldtown' due to the number of buildings designed by William Butterfield
in the 19th century, including much of Rugby School and the extension of St Andrews church.
Rugby town centre includes numerous restaurants of various kinds and many pubs. In 2002, Brownsover Fish Bar on Hollowell Way, Brownsover, was named as the best seller of Fish and Chips
in the country. The town centre is noted for its large number of pubs; in the 1960s it was recorded as having the second-highest number of pubs per square mile in England.
The main shopping area in Rugby is in the streets around the Clock Tower, two of which - High Street and Sheep Street - are pedestrianised. The town centre has an indoor shopping centre called The Clock Towers
which opened in 1980. A street market
is held in the town centre several days a week. In recent years several out-of-town retail centres have opened to the north of the town. Rugby also contains several large park
s, most notably Caldecott Park
near the town hall. The borough council along with Warwickshire County Council currently have plans to pedestrianise North Street, a busy road through the town centre as part of the town centre's regeneration. This has proved to be very controversial, with the town's major bus operator Stagecoach in Warwickshire
threatening to reduce many bus services if the road is closed to traffic.
In 2010 a short local bypass
, the first part of the Rugby Western Relief Road
, was opened, running from the A428
(Lawford Road) along the edge of the built-up area to the A4071 (road from Rugby through Bilton
and Cawston
) a little west of Cawston, to take through heavy traffic off through suburban housing roads such as Addison Road. On 10 September 2010, the final part of Rugby's Western Relief Road was opened. The road runs from Potsford Dam near Cawston, through the Lawford Road and ending at Newbold Road, near the Avon Valley School. The initial estimated cost was projected at £36.6 million, while the final figure is in excess of £60 million.
Rugby is administered by two local authorities
: Rugby Borough Council
which covers Rugby and its surrounding countryside, and Warwickshire
County Council
. The two authorities are responsible for different aspects of local government. Rugby is an unparished area
and so does not have its own town council
.
In 1983 Rugby became part of the parliamentary constituency of Rugby and Kenilworth, one of the Midlands' most marginal seats. Between 1983 and 1997 Jim Pawsey
was the Conservative Member of Parliament, losing in 1997 to Labour's
Andy King.
At the 2005 general election
Jeremy Wright
regained the seat for the Conservatives
.
From 1885 until 1983 Rugby was a constituency in itself. Following the recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England, Warwickshire was allocated a sixth parliamentary seat. In the 2010 general election, the existing Rugby and Kenilworth constituency was abolished and split in two. A new Rugby constituency
was created, and a new constituency of Kenilworth and Southam formed to the south of Rugby, and as a result the town regained its pre-1983 status of returning its own member of parliament, albeit with the addition of the Bulkington Ward from Nuneaton. Jeremy Wright chose to stand for Kenilworth and Southam in the 2010 general election and was successful. Mark Pawsey
, son of former Rugby MP Jim Pawsey
, was elected for Rugby in 2010.
. It is an engineering
centre and has a long history of producing gas and steam turbine
s at the GEC and at the AEI
. The AEI was earlier British Thomson-Houston
or BTH. They used to dominate employment in the town. They are now amalgamated to form Alstom
. Engineering in Rugby is still the most important sector.
Another major industry in Rugby is cement
making; Rugby Cement
works, on the western outskirts of the town, makes cement from the local Jurassic
Lias
limestone. The cement industry in Rugby dates back to the 1860s. In the 1990s the Rugby Cement works was dramatically expanded, and in 2000 other Rugby Cement plants at Southam
and Rochester were closed, with all production moved to the Rugby plant, now one of the largest of its type in Europe.
Since the 1980s several large industrial estates have been built to the north of the town, and warehousing
and distribution have become major employers.
Further afield, within the Rugby borough
is the Rolls-Royce
engineering works near Ansty
. This is nearer to Coventry
than Rugby, but is a major employer to the Rugby population.
Tourism
is also important to the town's economy, especially related to Rugby football
.
One of the last links to Rugby's rural past was the town's cattle market held near the railway station, and earlier in the "Market Place" in the old centre of Rugby since medieval times. The market near the railway station was closed in late 2008 and the site has been redeveloped into housing, a hotel
and a Tesco
store as part of a wider scheme of work in the station area.
One of the most notable landmarks around Rugby was, until August 2007, the Rugby VLF transmitter
, a large radio transmitting station located just to the east of the town. The station was opened in 1926 and was used to transmit the MSF time signal. Several of the masts however were decommissioned and demolished by explosives in 2004, although a few including four of the biggest masts remained until 2007. (Firing the explosive charges was delayed by rabbit
s gnawing the wires). The remaining four 'tall' masts were demolished on the afternoon of 2 August 2007 with no prior publicity.
Rugby Cement works, to the west of the town, can be seen for many miles. Standing at just 115 metres high, the landmark is not a popular one—in 2005 it came in the top ten of a poll of buildings people would like to see demolished on the Channel 4
television series Demolition. The works are also the subject of certain local controversy, as some residents believe the emissions from the works have caused health problems for local people. In October 2006, the owners of the Rugby Cement works, Cemex
, were fined £400,000 for excessive pollution after a court case brought by the Environment Agency
.
The town has statues of three famous locals: Rupert Brooke
, Thomas Hughes
and William Webb Ellis
. The Rupert Brooke statue is situated at the forked junction of Regent Street on the green and commemorates his contribution to poetry. Thomas Hughes' statue stands in the gardens of the Temple Reading Rooms (the central library of Rugby school) on Barby Road. Since England won the Rugby World Cup, the William Webb Ellis statue outside Rugby School is one of the most visited parts of the town.
St Andrew's Church, in the town centre, is Rugby's original parish church
. A church has stood on the site since the 13th century. The church was extensively re-built and expanded in the 19th century, designed by William Butterfield
. The expanded church included a new east tower, which has a spire
182 feet (55 m) high. However some parts of the older medieval church were retained, most notably the 22 metre high west tower which bears strong resemblance to a castle
turret. The west tower was probably built during the reign of Henry III (1216–1272) to serve a defensive as well as religious role, and is Rugby's oldest building. The church has other artefacts of medieval Rugby including the 13th-century parish chest, and a medieval font
.
Rugby's main Roman Catholic church is St. Maries http://www.stmaries.co.uk on Dunchurch Road. It is one of the town's most well-known landmarks as it is quite dominant on the skyline. Its spire is the tallest in Warwickshire . The church was built in 1872, designed by Pugin
in the Early English style.
Places of interest around Rugby include:
, Overslade
, Brownsover
, Bilton
, Hillside, New Bilton
, Newbold-on-Avon
, Cawston
and Kingsway.
, at the location of a new junction
. It is on the West Coast Main Line
, which was electrified in the 1960s. The station was named Rugby Midland between 1950 and 1975. It also served the Rugby and Stamford Railway from 1850 until the closure of this line in 1966 under the Beeching Axe
.
Rugby Central station
opened in 1899 on the Great Central Main Line
. The line (from London Marylebone to Nottingham Victoria) was closed south of Rugby in 1966 under the Beeching Axe. Remaining services north of Rugby were closed three years later.
The British Railways steam locomotive testing centre was located in Rugby.
Schools in Rugby include the Lawrence Sheriff School
for boys (which came top of the country in the 2009 and 2010 GCSE League Tables), Rugby High School for Girls
and Ashlawn School
(formerly Dunsmore School for Boys, Dunsmore School for Girls and Fareham School), all of which are grammar schools. Perhaps the most renowned school is Rugby School, home of rugby football and the top co-educational boarding school in the country. There are also several comprehensive school
s, Ashlawn School
(formerly Dunsmore School for Boys, Dunsmore School for Girls and Fareham School), Bilton School
(formerly Herbert Kay & Westlands School, and Bilton High School), Avon Valley School
(formerly 'Newbold School'), Bishop Wulstan School
(now shut), and Harris School
. Rugby is also home to a college
, which is now a part of the Warwickshire College
group.
Other schools in the town include Eastlands Primary School.
, actor Tim Pigott-Smith
and writer Rose Macaulay
.
The scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer
who discovered helium
and founded the science journal Nature
was born in Rugby, as was the inventor of the 'oval' football Richard Lindon
.
The band Spacemen 3
and the related spin off bands from its various members Spiritualized
(Jason Pierce
); Spectrum (Peter Kember
) Freelovebabies (Will Carruthers) arose from Rugby, as does the singer/songwriter James Morrison
.
The sprinter Katharine Merry
and British Judokas Neil and Christopher Adams were natives of Rugby. The former two both won Olympic
medals.
Many famous people attended Rugby School
, including Neville Chamberlain
, Lewis Carroll
, Salman Rushdie and Matthew Arnold
. Arnold's father Thomas Arnold
was a noted headmaster of the school.
England cricketer Ian Bell was born in Dunchurch (near Rugby) and attended Princethorpe College
.
'Allo 'Allo actor Arthur Bostrom
was born in Rugby and attended Lawrence Sheriff School
.
Clive Mason
of the programme for the deaf See Hear
used to live in Rugby.
Bill Maynard
(Claude Greengrass in the Heartbeat TV series) lives locally.
Ben Croshaw
, better known as 'Yahtzee', a comedic video games reviewer in charge of his own Zero Punctuation
segment of The Escapist
was born in Rugby. He currently lives in Australia
.
Thomas Hedley
, publisher and president of Hedley Media Group, was born in the town.
Jez Carne
, Made famous as the Web Geezer on the Hamish & Andy
Show - 4pm to 6pm Weekdays Australia
Children's TV Presenter Peter Purves
lived in Bilton for a time.
with:
Évreux
, France. Rüsselsheim
, Germany.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, England, located on the River Avon
River Avon, Warwickshire
The River Avon or Avon is a river in or adjoining the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the Midlands of England...
. The town has a population of 61,988
(2001 census) making it the second largest town in the county. The enclosing Borough of Rugby
Rugby (borough)
Rugby is a local government district with borough status in eastern Warwickshire, England.The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, and the rural areas surrounding the town....
has a population of 91,600 (2005 estimate).
Rugby is 13 miles (21 km) east of Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
and Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
.
The town is credited with being the birthplace of rugby football
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
.
History
- Main article History of RugbyHistory of Rugby, WarwickshireThis is about the history of the town of Rugby.-Early history:In the Iron Age the Rugby area was settled. Rugby's site on a plateau at about 400 feet above sea level, overlooking the River Avon made it an important strategic post overlooking the Avon, which was a natural barrier between the Dobunni...
Early Iron age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
settlement existed in the Rugby area, and a few miles outside what is now Rugby, existed a Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
settlement known as Tripontium
Tripontium
Tripontium was a town in Roman Britain. It lay on the Roman road later called Watling Street at a site now chiefly within the civil parish of Newton and Biggin in the English county of Warwickshire and partly in Leicestershire, some 3.4 miles north-east of Rugby and 3.1 miles south of...
. Rugby was originally a small Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
farming settlement, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086 as Rocheberie. Rugby obtained a charter to hold a market in 1255, and soon developed into a small country market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
.
The name's likeliest origin is Anglo-Saxon
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
Hrōca burh or similar = "Rook fort", where Rook may be the bird or may be a man's name. Another theory is that the name is originally derived from an old Celtic name Droche-brig meaning "wild hilltop". The change to -by is because of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
influence: there are other place names ending in -by in the area ('By' meaning town in Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
and Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
even today).
Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
was founded in 1567 by money left in the will of Lawrence Sheriff
Lawrence Sheriff
Lawrence Sheriff was an Elizabethan gentleman and grocer to Elizabeth I who founded Rugby School.Not much is known about Lawrence Sheriff's early life, but it thought that he was born near St. Andrew's Church in Rugby, Warwickshire...
, a locally born grocer, who moved to London and earned his fortune. Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
was originally intended as a school for local boys, but over time became a mostly fee-paying private school. The Lawrence Sheriff School
Lawrence Sheriff School
Lawrence Sheriff School is a selective boys' grammar school in Rugby in Warwickshire. The school is named after Lawrence Sheriff, the Elizabethan man who founded Rugby School. The school's name is often shortened to 'LSS', or often just 'Sheriff' by boys at the school. In a recent OFSTED ...
was eventually founded in the late 19th century to carry on Sheriff's original intentions.
Rugby remained a sleepy country market town until the 19th century and the coming of the railways. In 1838 the London and Birmingham Railway
London and Birmingham Railway
The London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway ....
was constructed around the town, and in 1840 the Midland Counties Railway
Midland Counties Railway
The Midland Counties Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed between 1832 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby and thence, via the London and Birmingham Railway, to London. The MCR system connected with the North Midland Railway and the...
made a junction with the London and Birmingham at Rugby. Rugby became an important railway junction, and the proliferation of rail yards and workshops attracted workers to the town. Rugby's population grew from just 2,500 in 1835, to over 10,000 by the 1880s.
In the 1890s and 1900s heavy engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
industries began to set up in the town, and Rugby rapidly grew into a major industrial centre. Rugby expanded rapidly in the early decades of the 20th century as workers moved into the town. By the 1940s, the population of Rugby had grown to over 40,000.
In the postwar years, Rugby became well served by the motorway network, with the M1
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
and M6
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
merging close to the town.
Fame
Rugby is most famous for the invention of rugby footballRugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
, which is played throughout the world. The invention of the game is credited to William Webb Ellis
William Webb Ellis
Rev. William Webb Ellis was an Anglican clergyman who is famous for allegedly being the inventor of Rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School....
whilst breaking the existing rules of a football match played in 1823 at Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
, which is near the centre of Rugby.
Rugby School is one of England's oldest and most prestigious public schools, and was the setting of Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
's semi-autobiographical masterpiece Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
. A substantial part of the 2004 dramatisation of the novel, starring Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, was filmed on location at Rugby School.
Rugby is also a birthplace of the jet engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
. In April 1937 Frank Whittle
Frank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...
built the world's first prototype jet engine at the British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines. They were merged with the similar Metropolitan-Vickers company in 1928, but the two maintained their own...
works in Rugby, and between 1936-41 based himself at Brownsover Hall
Brownsover Hall
Brownsover Hall is a 19th century mansion house in the old village of Brownsover, Rugby, Warwickshire which has been converted for use as a hotel. It is a Grade II listed building.-Early History :...
on the outskirts of the town, where he designed and developed early prototype engines. Much of his work was also carried out at nearby Lutterworth
Lutterworth
Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, north of Rugby, in Warwickshire and south of Leicester. It had a population of 8,293 in the 2001 UK census....
. Holography
Holography
Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
was also invented in Rugby by the Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
inventor Dennis Gabor
Dennis Gabor
Dennis Gabor CBE, FRS was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and inventor, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics....
in 1947.
In the 19th century, Rugby became famous for its once hugely important railway junction which was the setting for Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's story Mugby Junction
Mugby Junction
Mugby Junction was a set of short stories by Charles Dickens written in 1866. It was first published in a Christmas edition of the magazine All The Year Round....
.
The town also inspired Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
, (author of Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
) to set up a colony in America, for the younger sons of the English gentry, who couldn't inherit under the laws of primogeniture. He named the town Rugby. The town of Rugby, Tennessee
Rugby, Tennessee
Rugby is an unincorporated community in Morgan and Scott counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Founded in 1880 by English author Thomas Hughes, Rugby was built as an experimental utopian colony. While Hughes's experiment largely failed, a small community lingered at Rugby throughout the 20th...
still exists today.
Rugby today
Bilton, Warwickshire
Bilton is an area of Rugby in Warwickshire and a ward of the Borough of Rugby. It comprises much of the western half of the town.Historically a village in its own right , Bilton's name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Beolatun , and it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as both Beltone and...
, Hillmorton
Hillmorton
Hillmorton is an area of the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, it comprises most of the eastern half of the town.Hillmorton was historically a village in its own right, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book as land that belonged to Hugh de Grandmesnil, at one time a market was held in Hillmorton, and...
, Brownsover
Brownsover
Brownsover is a small village about 1½ miles north of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Since 1960, it has been further absorbed by the suburban expansion of Rugby.-'Old' Brownsover:...
and Newbold-on-Avon
Newbold-on-Avon
Newbold-on-Avon is an area of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, located around 1½ miles north-west of the town centre. Newbold was historically a village in its own right, but was incorporated into Rugby in 1932....
which were incorporated into Rugby in 1932 when the town became a borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
; all except Brownsover still have their former village centres. Rugby also includes the areas of New Bilton
New Bilton
New Bilton is a place in Rugby, Warwickshire, in England. It is a suburb of Rugby, situated to the west of the town centre. The nearby village of Bilton has also been absorbed into Rugby....
, Overslade
Overslade
Overslade is a political ward, as well as a general neighbourhood in the central south part of the town of Rugby, Warwickshire. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the ward's population was 5,606. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Matthew and the local secondary school is Harris School...
and Hillside. The spread of Rugby has nearly reached the villages of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore
Clifton-upon-Dunsmore
Clifton-upon-Dunsmore is a village and civil parish in the Rugby borough of Warwickshire in England.-Location:Clifton bears the distinction of being the most easterly village in Warwickshire . It is located roughly a mile east of Rugby, and is effectively a suburb of the town, although separated by...
, Cawston
Cawston, Warwickshire
Cawston is a civil parish and village close to the south west of Rugby, Warwickshire, on the A4071 . For hundreds of years the village was basically a hamlet and the two settlements remained separate despite Rugby's continued growth. However in 2003-04 a new housing estate, Cawston Grange, was...
, Dunchurch
Dunchurch
Dunchurch is a civil parish and village on the south-western outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 2,842 in the village.- History :...
and Long Lawford
Long Lawford
Long Lawford is a village and civil parish in the Rugby borough of Warwickshire, England, located just west of Rugby, in 2001 the parish had a population of 2,831....
.
The town centre is mostly Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and early 20th century, however a few much older buildings survive, along with some more modern developments. Rugby was described by Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
as 'Butterfieldtown' due to the number of buildings designed by William Butterfield
William Butterfield
William Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement . He is noted for his use of polychromy-Biography:...
in the 19th century, including much of Rugby School and the extension of St Andrews church.
Rugby town centre includes numerous restaurants of various kinds and many pubs. In 2002, Brownsover Fish Bar on Hollowell Way, Brownsover, was named as the best seller of Fish and Chips
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
in the country. The town centre is noted for its large number of pubs; in the 1960s it was recorded as having the second-highest number of pubs per square mile in England.
The main shopping area in Rugby is in the streets around the Clock Tower, two of which - High Street and Sheep Street - are pedestrianised. The town centre has an indoor shopping centre called The Clock Towers
The Clock Towers
The Clock Towers Shopping Centre is a shopping precinct in the town centre of Rugby, Warwickshire, managed by EFM Facilities Ltd. The precinct includes several clothes stores, game shops and a few thrift stores....
which opened in 1980. A street market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
is held in the town centre several days a week. In recent years several out-of-town retail centres have opened to the north of the town. Rugby also contains several large park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
s, most notably Caldecott Park
Caldecott Park
Caldecott Park is an urban park located in the centre of Rugby, England. Most of the land was purchased by the Rugby Urban District Council in 1903 from Thomas Caldecott, the last lord of the manor. There was additional land purchased to the north of the original park in 1911, bringing the park to...
near the town hall. The borough council along with Warwickshire County Council currently have plans to pedestrianise North Street, a busy road through the town centre as part of the town centre's regeneration. This has proved to be very controversial, with the town's major bus operator Stagecoach in Warwickshire
Stagecoach in Warwickshire
Stagecoach in Warwickshire is the Stagecoach Group bus operator in and around the county of Warwickshire, England. While Stagecoach in Warwickshire is the brand image of the company, its legal name is Midland Red Ltd...
threatening to reduce many bus services if the road is closed to traffic.
In 2010 a short local bypass
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
, the first part of the Rugby Western Relief Road
Rugby Western Relief Road
The Rugby Western Relief Road is a single carriageway road which is on the outskirts of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The £36.6 million scheme includes a £17.08 million contribution from the Department for Transport and was expected to be completed by the end of 2009 but the date was...
, was opened, running from the A428
A428 road
The A428 road is a major road in central and eastern England. It connects the cities of Coventry and Cambridge by way of the county towns of Northampton and Bedford.-Coventry - Northampton:...
(Lawford Road) along the edge of the built-up area to the A4071 (road from Rugby through Bilton
Bilton, Warwickshire
Bilton is an area of Rugby in Warwickshire and a ward of the Borough of Rugby. It comprises much of the western half of the town.Historically a village in its own right , Bilton's name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Beolatun , and it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as both Beltone and...
and Cawston
Cawston, Warwickshire
Cawston is a civil parish and village close to the south west of Rugby, Warwickshire, on the A4071 . For hundreds of years the village was basically a hamlet and the two settlements remained separate despite Rugby's continued growth. However in 2003-04 a new housing estate, Cawston Grange, was...
) a little west of Cawston, to take through heavy traffic off through suburban housing roads such as Addison Road. On 10 September 2010, the final part of Rugby's Western Relief Road was opened. The road runs from Potsford Dam near Cawston, through the Lawford Road and ending at Newbold Road, near the Avon Valley School. The initial estimated cost was projected at £36.6 million, while the final figure is in excess of £60 million.
Politics and governance
Local government in the United Kingdom
The pattern of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to the local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is decided by the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom, because England does not have a devolved...
: Rugby Borough Council
Rugby (borough)
Rugby is a local government district with borough status in eastern Warwickshire, England.The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, and the rural areas surrounding the town....
which covers Rugby and its surrounding countryside, and Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
County Council
County council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...
. The two authorities are responsible for different aspects of local government. Rugby is an unparished area
Unparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...
and so does not have its own town council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....
.
In 1983 Rugby became part of the parliamentary constituency of Rugby and Kenilworth, one of the Midlands' most marginal seats. Between 1983 and 1997 Jim Pawsey
Jim Pawsey
James Francis Pawsey, , known as Jim Pawsey, is a retired British Conservative politician.Pawsey was Member of Parliament for Rugby from 1979 to 1983, then for Rugby and Kenilworth from 1983 until he lost the seat in the 1997 general election to Labour's Andy King.His son, Mark Pawsey, was elected...
was the Conservative Member of Parliament, losing in 1997 to Labour's
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Andy King.
At the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
Jeremy Wright
Jeremy Wright (politician)
Jeremy Paul Wright is a British Conservative Party politician, and current Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kenilworth and Southam in Warwickshire...
regained the seat for the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
.
From 1885 until 1983 Rugby was a constituency in itself. Following the recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England, Warwickshire was allocated a sixth parliamentary seat. In the 2010 general election, the existing Rugby and Kenilworth constituency was abolished and split in two. A new Rugby constituency
Rugby (UK Parliament constituency)
Rugby is a parliamentary constituency in Warwickshire, England. It elects one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom using the first past the post system....
was created, and a new constituency of Kenilworth and Southam formed to the south of Rugby, and as a result the town regained its pre-1983 status of returning its own member of parliament, albeit with the addition of the Bulkington Ward from Nuneaton. Jeremy Wright chose to stand for Kenilworth and Southam in the 2010 general election and was successful. Mark Pawsey
Mark Pawsey
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Rugby since the 2010 general election....
, son of former Rugby MP Jim Pawsey
Jim Pawsey
James Francis Pawsey, , known as Jim Pawsey, is a retired British Conservative politician.Pawsey was Member of Parliament for Rugby from 1979 to 1983, then for Rugby and Kenilworth from 1983 until he lost the seat in the 1997 general election to Labour's Andy King.His son, Mark Pawsey, was elected...
, was elected for Rugby in 2010.
Nearby places
- Nearby cities: CoventryCoventryCoventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, LeicesterLeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a... - Nearby towns: LutterworthLutterworthLutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, north of Rugby, in Warwickshire and south of Leicester. It had a population of 8,293 in the 2001 UK census....
, DaventryDaventryDaventry is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 .-Geography:The town is also the administrative centre of the larger Daventry district, which has a population of 71,838. The town is 77 miles north-northwest of London, 13.9 miles west of Northampton and 10.2...
, HinckleyHinckleyHinckley is a town in southwest Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 43,246 . It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council...
, KenilworthKenilworthKenilworth is a town in central Warwickshire, England. In 2001 the town had a population of 22,582 . It is situated south of Coventry, north of Warwick and northwest of London....
, NuneatonNuneatonNuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...
, Leamington SpaLeamington SpaRoyal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...
, NorthamptonNorthamptonNorthampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, SouthamSouthamSoutham is a small market town in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 6,509 in the town.The nearest sizeable town to Southam is Leamington Spa, located roughly 7 miles to the west... - Nearby villages: Newbold, Harborough MagnaHarborough MagnaHarborough Magna is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England.Along with the adjoining hamlet of Harborough Parva and nearby Cathiron, the parish has a population of 461 ....
, PailtonPailtonPailton is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Its population in 2001 was recorded as 482. The village was originally known as Pailington....
, BrinklowBrinklowBrinklow is a village and parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England. It is about halfway between Rugby and Coventry, and has a population of 1,041 ....
, Monks KirbyMonks KirbyMonks Kirby is a village and civil parish in north-eastern Warwickshire, England. The population of the parish is 434 .Monks Kirby is located around one mile east of the old Fosse Way, around 8 miles north-west of Rugby, seven miles north-east of Coventry and six miles west of Lutterworth....
, EasenhallEasenhallEasenhall is a small village and parish in Warwickshire, England. It is located three miles north-west of the town of Rugby and a mile south of the M6 motorway. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the parish had a population of 231 in 96 houses....
, DunchurchDunchurchDunchurch is a civil parish and village on the south-western outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 2,842 in the village.- History :...
, BarbyBarby, NorthamptonshireBarby is a village and civil parish in the Daventry district of Northamptonshire, England. the parish had a population of 2,083.-Location:Barby is located approximately 5 miles south of Rugby, and about 7 miles north of Daventry. The village is located upon a hill overlooking the Rains Brook and...
, Long LawfordLong LawfordLong Lawford is a village and civil parish in the Rugby borough of Warwickshire, England, located just west of Rugby, in 2001 the parish had a population of 2,831....
Economy
Rugby's economy is mainly industrialIndustry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
. It is an engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
centre and has a long history of producing gas and steam turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
s at the GEC and at the AEI
Associated Electrical Industries
Associated Electrical Industries was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of the British Thomson-Houston Company and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies...
. The AEI was earlier British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines. They were merged with the similar Metropolitan-Vickers company in 1928, but the two maintained their own...
or BTH. They used to dominate employment in the town. They are now amalgamated to form Alstom
Alstom
Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...
. Engineering in Rugby is still the most important sector.
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
making; Rugby Cement
Cemex
CEMEX is the world's largest building materials supplier and third largest cement producer. Founded in Mexico in 1906, the company is based in Monterrey, Mexico...
works, on the western outskirts of the town, makes cement from the local Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
Lias
Lias Group
The Lias Group or Lias is a lithostratigraphic unit found in a large area of western Europe, including the British Isles, the North Sea, the low countries and the north of Germany...
limestone. The cement industry in Rugby dates back to the 1860s. In the 1990s the Rugby Cement works was dramatically expanded, and in 2000 other Rugby Cement plants at Southam
Southam
Southam is a small market town in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 6,509 in the town.The nearest sizeable town to Southam is Leamington Spa, located roughly 7 miles to the west...
and Rochester were closed, with all production moved to the Rugby plant, now one of the largest of its type in Europe.
Since the 1980s several large industrial estates have been built to the north of the town, and warehousing
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
and distribution have become major employers.
Further afield, within the Rugby borough
Rugby (borough)
Rugby is a local government district with borough status in eastern Warwickshire, England.The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, and the rural areas surrounding the town....
is the Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce plc
Rolls-Royce Group plc is a global power systems company headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines , and also has major businesses in the marine propulsion and energy sectors. Through its defence-related activities...
engineering works near Ansty
Ansty, Warwickshire
Ansty is a village and civil parish just outside the outskirts of Coventry, about northeast of the city centre. Ansty was part of the County of the City of Coventry until that county was dissolved in 1842....
. This is nearer to Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
than Rugby, but is a major employer to the Rugby population.
Tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
is also important to the town's economy, especially related to Rugby football
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
.
One of the last links to Rugby's rural past was the town's cattle market held near the railway station, and earlier in the "Market Place" in the old centre of Rugby since medieval times. The market near the railway station was closed in late 2008 and the site has been redeveloped into housing, a hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
and a Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
store as part of a wider scheme of work in the station area.
Landmarks
Rugby VLF transmitter
Rugby radio station was a radio transmission facility at Hillmorton near the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England, situated just west of the A5 trunk road and in later years junction 18 of the M1 motorway...
, a large radio transmitting station located just to the east of the town. The station was opened in 1926 and was used to transmit the MSF time signal. Several of the masts however were decommissioned and demolished by explosives in 2004, although a few including four of the biggest masts remained until 2007. (Firing the explosive charges was delayed by rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s gnawing the wires). The remaining four 'tall' masts were demolished on the afternoon of 2 August 2007 with no prior publicity.
Rugby Cement works, to the west of the town, can be seen for many miles. Standing at just 115 metres high, the landmark is not a popular one—in 2005 it came in the top ten of a poll of buildings people would like to see demolished on the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
television series Demolition. The works are also the subject of certain local controversy, as some residents believe the emissions from the works have caused health problems for local people. In October 2006, the owners of the Rugby Cement works, Cemex
Cemex
CEMEX is the world's largest building materials supplier and third largest cement producer. Founded in Mexico in 1906, the company is based in Monterrey, Mexico...
, were fined £400,000 for excessive pollution after a court case brought by the Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
.
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
, Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
and William Webb Ellis
William Webb Ellis
Rev. William Webb Ellis was an Anglican clergyman who is famous for allegedly being the inventor of Rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School....
. The Rupert Brooke statue is situated at the forked junction of Regent Street on the green and commemorates his contribution to poetry. Thomas Hughes' statue stands in the gardens of the Temple Reading Rooms (the central library of Rugby school) on Barby Road. Since England won the Rugby World Cup, the William Webb Ellis statue outside Rugby School is one of the most visited parts of the town.
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
. A church has stood on the site since the 13th century. The church was extensively re-built and expanded in the 19th century, designed by William Butterfield
William Butterfield
William Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement . He is noted for his use of polychromy-Biography:...
. The expanded church included a new east tower, which has a spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
182 feet (55 m) high. However some parts of the older medieval church were retained, most notably the 22 metre high west tower which bears strong resemblance to a castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
turret. The west tower was probably built during the reign of Henry III (1216–1272) to serve a defensive as well as religious role, and is Rugby's oldest building. The church has other artefacts of medieval Rugby including the 13th-century parish chest, and a medieval font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
.
Pugin
Pugin most commonly refers to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , English architect and designer.Other members of his family include:...
in the Early English style.
Places of interest
Places of interest in the town include:- The Rugby School Museum, which has audio-visual displays about the history of Rugby School and of the town.
- The combined art gallery and museumRugby Art Gallery and MuseumThe Rugby Art Gallery and Museum is a combined art gallery and museum located in central Rugby, Warwickshire, in England.The purpose built building housing it which was opened in 2000 also contains the town's library....
. The art gallery contains a nationally recognised collection of contemporary art. The museum contains, amongst other things, RomanRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
artefacts dug up from the nearby Roman settlement of TripontiumTripontiumTripontium was a town in Roman Britain. It lay on the Roman road later called Watling Street at a site now chiefly within the civil parish of Newton and Biggin in the English county of Warwickshire and partly in Leicestershire, some 3.4 miles north-east of Rugby and 3.1 miles south of...
. - The Rugby Football MuseumThe James Gilbert Rugby Football MuseumThe Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum is a rugby football museum in the town centre of Rugby in Warwickshire, near Rugby School. It takes its name from William Webb Ellis who is credited with inventing the game of Rugby football....
, where traditional rugbyRugby footballRugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
balls are hand made. It contains much rugby football memorabilia.
Places of interest around Rugby include:
- Brandon MarshBrandon MarshBrandon Marsh is an SSSI and nature reserve in Warwickshire, England. It is situated adjacent to the River Avon, near the village of Brandon, a few miles east of Coventry....
- Coombe Abbey and Coombe Country ParkCoombe AbbeyCoombe Abbey is a hotel which has been developed from an historic grade I listed building and former country house. It is located roughly midway between Coventry and Brinklow in the countryside of Warwickshire, England...
- DunchurchDunchurchDunchurch is a civil parish and village on the south-western outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 2,842 in the village.- History :...
- Historic village - Draycote WaterDraycote WaterDraycote Water is a reservoir and country park near the village of Dunchurch, 6 km south of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, owned and operated by Severn Trent Water...
- Reservoir and nature reserve - Oxford CanalOxford CanalThe Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
- Rugby SchoolRugby SchoolRugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
- Stanford Hall
- Ryton Organic Gardens
- Benn HallBenn HallThe Benn Hall is a conference, seminar, exhibition and party venue located in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The hall, along with the town hall which is located next to it, was opened on 5 July 1961 by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. It is named after George Charles Benn who in his will of 1895...
- Conference centre and music venue - Toft Lakes - Artificial lakes mainly used for carpCarpCarp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...
.
Suburbs
HillmortonHillmorton
Hillmorton is an area of the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, it comprises most of the eastern half of the town.Hillmorton was historically a village in its own right, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book as land that belonged to Hugh de Grandmesnil, at one time a market was held in Hillmorton, and...
, Overslade
Overslade
Overslade is a political ward, as well as a general neighbourhood in the central south part of the town of Rugby, Warwickshire. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the ward's population was 5,606. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Matthew and the local secondary school is Harris School...
, Brownsover
Brownsover
Brownsover is a small village about 1½ miles north of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Since 1960, it has been further absorbed by the suburban expansion of Rugby.-'Old' Brownsover:...
, Bilton
Bilton, Warwickshire
Bilton is an area of Rugby in Warwickshire and a ward of the Borough of Rugby. It comprises much of the western half of the town.Historically a village in its own right , Bilton's name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Beolatun , and it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as both Beltone and...
, Hillside, New Bilton
New Bilton
New Bilton is a place in Rugby, Warwickshire, in England. It is a suburb of Rugby, situated to the west of the town centre. The nearby village of Bilton has also been absorbed into Rugby....
, Newbold-on-Avon
Newbold-on-Avon
Newbold-on-Avon is an area of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, located around 1½ miles north-west of the town centre. Newbold was historically a village in its own right, but was incorporated into Rugby in 1932....
, Cawston
Cawston, Warwickshire
Cawston is a civil parish and village close to the south west of Rugby, Warwickshire, on the A4071 . For hundreds of years the village was basically a hamlet and the two settlements remained separate despite Rugby's continued growth. However in 2003-04 a new housing estate, Cawston Grange, was...
and Kingsway.
Transport
- By road, Rugby is near several major trunk routes including the M6M6 motorwayThe M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
, M1M1 motorwayThe M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
and M45 motorwayM45 motorwayThe M45 is a motorway in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, England and is long. It runs from Junction 17 of the M1 motorway south east of Rugby and ends with a junction with the A45 road southwest of Rugby...
s and the A45 roadA45 roadThe A45 is a major road in England. It runs east from Birmingham past the National Exhibition Centre and the M42, then bypasses Coventry and Rugby, where it briefly merges with the M45 until it continues to Daventry...
. Other less important main roads include the A426 roadA426 roadThe A426 road is a road in England which runs from the city of Leicester to the market town of Southam in Warwickshire via the towns of Lutterworth and Rugby.-History:...
and the A428 roadA428 roadThe A428 road is a major road in central and eastern England. It connects the cities of Coventry and Cambridge by way of the county towns of Northampton and Bedford.-Coventry - Northampton:...
. Most traffic from the industrial estates & the cement works has to travel through the town centre, this should be alleviated with the current building of the Rugby Western Relief RoadRugby Western Relief RoadThe Rugby Western Relief Road is a single carriageway road which is on the outskirts of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The £36.6 million scheme includes a £17.08 million contribution from the Department for Transport and was expected to be completed by the end of 2009 but the date was...
, linking the A45 with the Leicester Road, that connects with the Motorway at Junction 1 of the M6. - By rail Rugby is served by the West Coast Main LineWest Coast Main LineThe West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
railway, and has services to LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
- BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and the North West of EnglandNorth West EnglandNorth West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
(see Rugby railway stationRugby railway stationRugby railway station serves the town of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. It opened during the Victorian era, in 1885, replacing earlier stations situated a little further west...
). - The nearest airport to Rugby is Coventry AirportCoventry AirportCoventry Airport is located south southeast of Coventry city centre, in the village of Baginton, Warwickshire, England, and about outside Coventry boundaries...
. The town also has a direct rail link to Birmingham Airport. - The Oxford CanalOxford CanalThe Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
runs along the north edge of Rugby, but south of the new housing estateHousing estateA housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
s round BrownsoverBrownsoverBrownsover is a small village about 1½ miles north of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Since 1960, it has been further absorbed by the suburban expansion of Rugby.-'Old' Brownsover:...
. - Buses run to Coventry, Southam, Leamington Spa, Daventry, Banbury, Leicester and Northampton as well as serving the major estates of the town on a regular basis.
Railways
Rugby station opened in 1838, sited around half a mile west of the present station. This original station was rebuilt in 1840 and 1885 as the present Rugby stationRugby railway station
Rugby railway station serves the town of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. It opened during the Victorian era, in 1885, replacing earlier stations situated a little further west...
, at the location of a new junction
Junction (rail)
A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge.This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes , 'points' and signalling.one or two tracks each meet at a junction, a fairly simple layout of tracks suffices to...
. It is on the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
, which was electrified in the 1960s. The station was named Rugby Midland between 1950 and 1975. It also served the Rugby and Stamford Railway from 1850 until the closure of this line in 1966 under the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
.
Rugby Central station
Rugby Central Railway Station
Rugby Central was a railway station serving Rugby in Warwickshire on the former Great Central Main Line which opened in 1899 and closed in 1969....
opened in 1899 on the Great Central Main Line
Great Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...
. The line (from London Marylebone to Nottingham Victoria) was closed south of Rugby in 1966 under the Beeching Axe. Remaining services north of Rugby were closed three years later.
The British Railways steam locomotive testing centre was located in Rugby.
Education
Lawrence Sheriff School
Lawrence Sheriff School is a selective boys' grammar school in Rugby in Warwickshire. The school is named after Lawrence Sheriff, the Elizabethan man who founded Rugby School. The school's name is often shortened to 'LSS', or often just 'Sheriff' by boys at the school. In a recent OFSTED ...
for boys (which came top of the country in the 2009 and 2010 GCSE League Tables), Rugby High School for Girls
Rugby High School for Girls
Rugby High School for Girls is a selective girls' grammar school situated in Bilton, Warwickshire, England...
and Ashlawn School
Ashlawn School
Ashlawn School is a secondary school on Ashlawn Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It also includes a grammar stream within it. Around 1,750 pupils attend the school educated by 90 full time teaching staff...
(formerly Dunsmore School for Boys, Dunsmore School for Girls and Fareham School), all of which are grammar schools. Perhaps the most renowned school is Rugby School, home of rugby football and the top co-educational boarding school in the country. There are also several comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
s, Ashlawn School
Ashlawn School
Ashlawn School is a secondary school on Ashlawn Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It also includes a grammar stream within it. Around 1,750 pupils attend the school educated by 90 full time teaching staff...
(formerly Dunsmore School for Boys, Dunsmore School for Girls and Fareham School), Bilton School
Bilton School
Bilton School Formerly Herbert Kay and Westlands School, and most recently Bilton High School is a major secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 situated within the village of Bilton within Rugby, Warwickshire. It is a specialist Maths and Computing College. Bilton school is planning a sixth-form...
(formerly Herbert Kay & Westlands School, and Bilton High School), Avon Valley School
Avon Valley School
The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College is an independent day school in the British town of Rugby, Warwickshire. The school is non-selective, catering for students aged 11–16....
(formerly 'Newbold School'), Bishop Wulstan School
Bishop Wulstan School
Bishop Wulstan School was situated on Oak Street in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England.-History:The school was best known for its history as it was once a practising monastery or Novitiate, associated with St.Marie's Church on Dunchurch Road. There is some debate as to the architect of the...
(now shut), and Harris School
Harris School
Harris School, a state-run secondary school in Rugby, Warwickshire operates as a voluntary aided Church of England school specialising in sports. It is co-educational, admits pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 and in 2006 had 685 pupils on the register. The school's colours are black, gold and...
. Rugby is also home to a college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
, which is now a part of the Warwickshire College
Warwickshire College
Warwickshire College is a large further and higher education college in England. It provides National Curriculum courses and vocational education in a broad range of subjects to students aged 16 and over...
group.
Other schools in the town include Eastlands Primary School.
Sport
- Rugby has a number of rugby unionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
teams including; the Rugby LionsRugby LionsRugby Football Club, nicknamed the Lions, is a rugby union club based in Rugby, Warwickshire in England . Rugby currently compete in National League 3 Midlands...
, Rugby Welsh, Rugby St. Andrews RFC, Newbold, AEI (Rugby) Rugby Football Club and Old Laurentian RFC. - Rugby's two non-league football clubs have recently been reduced to one, as the original Rugby Town F.C. controversially bought out the other club, VS Rugby. The current club is called Rugby Town F.C.Rugby Town F.C.Rugby Town F.C. is a football club based in Rugby, Warwickshire, which plays in the Southern Football League Division One Central. It is nicknamed The Valley, and plays its home matches at Butlin Road...
.
Rugby Welsh RFC
Rugby Welsh are a local 'junior' rugby club which were formed in 1936, and were originally known as Rugby St Andrews Welsh XV. 'The Welsh' as they are known now play in Midlands Division 4 West (South) following a league win and promotion from Midlands League 6 West (SE) in the 2008/09 season. The club still has an official club house at Bakehouse Lane, although it plays its home games at Alwyn Road, with the unofficial club house being at The Black Horse Pub in Bilton village, Rugby. Season results for Rugby Welsh RFC and further information regarding the clubs history can be found on the Rugby Welsh Website and on the RFU Website.Notable people
Famous or notable people born in Rugby include the poet Rupert BrookeRupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
, actor Tim Pigott-Smith
Tim Pigott-Smith
Tim Pigott-Smith is an English film and television actor.-Early life:Pigott-Smith was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of Margaret Muriel and Harry Thomas Pigott-Smith, who was a journalist. He was educated at Wyggeston Boys' School, Leicester, King Edward VI School Stratford-upon-Avon, and...
and writer Rose Macaulay
Rose Macaulay
Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, DBE was an English writer. She published thirty-five books, mostly novels but also biographies and travel writing....
.
The scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer
Joseph Norman Lockyer
Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS , known simply as Norman Lockyer, was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium...
who discovered helium
Helium
Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
and founded the science journal Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
was born in Rugby, as was the inventor of the 'oval' football Richard Lindon
Richard Lindon
Richard Lindon was an English leatherworker who was instrumental in the development of the modern-day rugby ball by advancing the craft for ball, rubber bladder, and air pump.- Life and career :...
.
The band Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...
and the related spin off bands from its various members Spiritualized
Spiritualized
Spiritualized are an English space rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3...
(Jason Pierce
Jason Pierce
Jason Pierce , also known as J. Spaceman or Spaceman, is an English musician. He was formerly the joint leader – with Peter Kember – of the alternative rock band Spacemen 3, and is now the leader and sole permanent member of the band Spiritualized.In between his work with Spiritualized...
); Spectrum (Peter Kember
Peter Kember
Peter Kember is a British musician and producer, more usually known as Sonic Boom, and was a founding member of alternative rock band Spacemen 3....
) Freelovebabies (Will Carruthers) arose from Rugby, as does the singer/songwriter James Morrison
James Morrison (singer)
James Morrison is a BRIT Award-winning English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Rugby, Warwickshire. In 2006, his debut single "You Give Me Something" became a hit in Europe, Australia, and Japan, peaking in the top five in the UK and New Zealand. His debut album, Undiscovered, debuted at the...
.
The sprinter Katharine Merry
Katharine Merry
Katharine Merry is a former English female sprinter.-Career:A member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club, Merry won a bronze medal in the 400 metre sprint at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.Merry had a career that spanned 20 years. Aged 12 she topped the UK Under 13 Rankings in...
and British Judokas Neil and Christopher Adams were natives of Rugby. The former two both won Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
medals.
Many famous people attended Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
, including Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
, Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
, Salman Rushdie and Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
. Arnold's father Thomas Arnold
Thomas Arnold
Dr Thomas Arnold was a British educator and historian. Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement...
was a noted headmaster of the school.
England cricketer Ian Bell was born in Dunchurch (near Rugby) and attended Princethorpe College
Princethorpe College
Princethorpe College is a Catholic independent day school located in Princethorpe, near Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It was founded in the late 1950s as St Bede's College in Royal Leamington Spa, before moving to its current site in 1966. It occupies a former Benedictine monastery surrounded by ...
.
'Allo 'Allo actor Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom
Arthur Bostrom is an English actor, most famous for his role as Officer Crabtree, in the long-running BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!.-Biography:...
was born in Rugby and attended Lawrence Sheriff School
Lawrence Sheriff School
Lawrence Sheriff School is a selective boys' grammar school in Rugby in Warwickshire. The school is named after Lawrence Sheriff, the Elizabethan man who founded Rugby School. The school's name is often shortened to 'LSS', or often just 'Sheriff' by boys at the school. In a recent OFSTED ...
.
Clive Mason
Clive Mason
Clive Mason is a Deaf British television presenter born in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. He was the first person to use British Sign Language on television. It was not until 2003 that BSL was recognised by the government as a language in its own right.-Early life:Mason was born deaf, and at...
of the programme for the deaf See Hear
See Hear
See Hear is a weekly magazine programme for deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, broadcast on Wednesday afternoons at 1pm. The programme focuses on the British and the worldwide deaf community and covers a broad range of topics from areas such as education, deaf people's rights, technology...
used to live in Rugby.
Bill Maynard
Bill Maynard
Walter Frederick George Williams , better known by the stage name Bill Maynard, is an English comedian and actor.-Early life and career:...
(Claude Greengrass in the Heartbeat TV series) lives locally.
Ben Croshaw
Ben Croshaw
Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw is an English comedic writer, video game journalist and author of adventure games created using Adventure Game Studio software. He writes articles for Australia's Hyper magazine, a major games publication...
, better known as 'Yahtzee', a comedic video games reviewer in charge of his own Zero Punctuation
Zero Punctuation
Zero Punctuation is an ongoing video game review series created by comedy writer and video game journalist Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw and published by the online magazine The Escapist.-Background:...
segment of The Escapist
The Escapist (magazine)
The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and gaming culture. Published by the Themis Group, it was edited by Julianne Greer up to June 30, 2009, then by Russ Pitts through September 2011, and is currently edited by Steve Butts. The Escapist was first...
was born in Rugby. He currently lives in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Thomas Hedley
Thomas Hedley
Thomas Hedley Jr., is a British magazine editor and screenwriter. The former publisher of Duckworth in London, is presently President and Publisher of Hedley Media Group in New York City. As a young editor of Esquire magazine, he edited and published essays by Federico Fellini, François Truffaut,...
, publisher and president of Hedley Media Group, was born in the town.
Jez Carne
Jez Carne
Jeremy Carne is a radio presenter in Australia. He acts as Web Geezer Jez on The Hamish & Andy Show. He won an ACRA in 2009 for Best Multimedia Execution on Hamish and Andy's, Tall Ship Adventure...
, Made famous as the Web Geezer on the Hamish & Andy
Hamish & Andy
Hamish & Andy are an Australian comedy duo formed in 2003 by Hamish Blake and Andy Lee. They currently host the radio program The Hamish & Andy Show which airs in Australia on the Today Network....
Show - 4pm to 6pm Weekdays Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
Children's TV Presenter Peter Purves
Peter Purves
Peter Purves is an English television presenter and actor.Purves was born in New Longton, near Preston, Lancashire, and was educated at the independent Arnold School in Blackpool, he had originally planned to go into teaching, training at Alsager College of Education, but began to act with the...
lived in Bilton for a time.
Twin towns
Rugby is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with:
Évreux
Évreux
Évreux is a commune in the Eure department, of which it is the capital, in Haute Normandie in northern France.-History:In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century CE, was named Mediolanum Aulercorum, "the central town of the Aulerci", the Gallic tribe then inhabiting the area...
, France. Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim is the largest town in the Groß-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany. It is one of seven special status towns in Hesse and is located on the Main, only a few kilometres from its mouth in Mainz. The suburbs of Bauschheim and Königstädten are included in Rüsselsheim...
, Germany.
External links
- http://www.rugby-local-history.org.uk/ Rugby Local History Group
- Chronology of Rugby from 1086 to 1992
- The Industrial History of Rugby
- The Rugby Observer The Local Newspaper
- Yourhomepagein Rugby Local Community Website
- Visit Rugby
- Rugby Tourism
- Rugby Borough Council
- Rugby's Clock Towers Shopping Centre
- Subterranea Britannica on Rugby Radio Station
- Rugby Welsh RFC
- The RFU