Everything about Rugby Warwickshire totally explained
Rugby is a
market town in
Warwickshire, in the
West Midlands of
England, on the
River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988
(2001 census) making it the
second largest town in the county. The larger
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.
History
» Main article History of Rugby
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 birds 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
Danish language 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.
Historical claims to fame
Rugby is most famous for the invention of
rugby football, which is played throughout the world. Legend has it that the game was invented by
William Webb Ellis 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.
Rugby 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 and
Overslade. 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, many
pubs, and a nightclub. 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
parks, 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 that if the road is closed to all traffic, that'll have to dramatically reduced many bus services because the main bus stops will have to be relocate further away meaning the services become less attractive to passengers. Thus meaning loss of patronage.
Politics and governance
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 doesn't 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. At the next general election, the existing Rugby and Kenilworth constituency will be abolished and split in two. A new
Rugby constituency will be created, and a new constituency of
Kenilworth and Southam will be created to the south of Rugby, and as a result the town will regain its pre-1983 status of returning its own member of parliament. The new Rugby constituency is expected to continue to be a marginal constituency and Jeremy Wright has indicated his intention of standing for the new Kenilworth and Southam seat at the next general election.
Geography
Nearby places
Economy
Rugby's economy is mainly
industrial. It is an
engineering centre and has a long history of producing gas and steam
turbines 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 has declined in recent years and the future of the Alstom works is uncertain, but it's still the largest private employer in Rugby. Alstom have now sold off the power conversion division of the business to become Converteam, which remains a large private employer in Rugby.
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.
A link to Rugby's rural past can still be found in the
cattle market held near the railway station. A cattle market has been held in Rugby since
medieval times.
Rugby is to some extent a dormitory town for nearby places such as
Coventry,
Leicester, and
Birmingham..
Landmarks
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
rabbits gnawing the wires). The remaining four 'tall' masts were demolished on the afternoon of
August 2 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 isn't 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. 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 metres) 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 (External Link
) on Dunchurch Road. It is one of the town's most well-known landmarks as it's 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
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 museum. The art gallery contains a nationally-recognised collection of contemporary art. The museum contains, amongst other things, Roman artefacts dug up from the nearby Roman settlement of Tripontium.
The Rugby Football Museum, where traditional rugby balls are hand made. It contains much rugby football memorabilia.
Places of interest around Rugby include:
Brandon Marsh
Coombe Abbey and Coombe Country Park
Dunchurch - Historic village
Draycote Water - Reservoir and nature reserve
Oxford Canal
Rugby School
Stanford Hall
Ryton Organic Gardens (External Link)
Suburbs
Hillmorton, Overslade, Brownsover, Bilton, New Bilton, Newbold-on-Avon.
Transport
By road, Rugby is near several major trunk routes including the M6, M1 and M45 motorways and the A45 road. Other less important main roads include the A426 road and the A428 road.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 a Western Relief Road, 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 Line railway, and has services to London - Birmingham and the North West of England (see Rugby railway station).
The nearest airport to Rugby is Coventry Airport. The town also has a direct rail link to Birmingham International Airport.
The Oxford Canal runs along the north edge of Rugby, but south of the new housing estates round 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.
Education
Schools in Rugby include the Lawrence Sheriff School for boys (which came 4th in the country for all schools, on 2006 GCSE results) and Rugby High School for Girls, both of which are grammar schools. There are also several comprehensive schools, including Ashlawn School (formerly Dunsmore School for Boys and Dunsmore School for Girls), 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.
Sport
Rugby has a number of rugby union teams including; the Rugby Lions, Newboldand Old Laurentian RFC.
Rugby also has a small football club, Rugby Town F.C., (formerly known as VS Rugby) which currently plays in the Southern League.
Notable people
Famous or notable people born in Rugby include the poet Rupert Brooke, 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 bands Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized both featuring Jason Pierce come 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 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 of the Heart Beat TV Series lives locally).
Twin towns
Rugby is twinned with:
Évreux, France.
Rüsselsheim, Germany.Further Information
Get more info on 'Rugby Warwickshire'.
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