Rugby is located 13 miles (21 km) east of [[Coventry]], on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with [[Northamptonshire]] and [[Leicestershire]].
Rugby is located 13 miles (21 km) east of [[Coventry]], on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with [[Northamptonshire]] and [[Leicestershire]].
[[Image:Rugby town centre.jpg|thumb|left|The town centre: Market Place, looking west from Church Street]]
[[Image:Rugby town centre.jpg|thumb|left|350px|The town centre: Market Place, looking west from Church Street]]
==Claims to fame==
==Claims to fame==
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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]].
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]].
[[Image:Rugby School 850.jpg|thumb|right|Rugby School]]
[[Image:Rugby School 850.jpg|thumb|225px|right|Rugby School]]
Famous or notable people born in Rugby include the poet [[Rupert Brooke]], writer [[Rose Macaulay]], the scientist [[Norman Lockyer]] who discovered [[helium]], the athlete [[Katharine Merry]] and the inventor of the 'oval' football [[Richard Lindon]]. The bands [[Spacemen 3]] and [[Spiritualized]] both led by [[Jason Pierce]] come from Rugby, as does the singer/songwriter [[James Morrison (singer)|James Morrison]]. British Judokas [[Christopher Adams|Chris]] and [[Neil Adams]] were also natives of Rugby.
Famous or notable people born in Rugby include the poet [[Rupert Brooke]], writer [[Rose Macaulay]], the scientist [[Norman Lockyer]] who discovered [[helium]], the athlete [[Katharine Merry]] and the inventor of the 'oval' football [[Richard Lindon]]. The bands [[Spacemen 3]] and [[Spiritualized]] both led by [[Jason Pierce]] come from Rugby, as does the singer/songwriter [[James Morrison (singer)|James Morrison]]. British Judokas [[Christopher Adams|Chris]] and [[Neil Adams]] were also natives of Rugby.
[[Image:Aa big aerials near Rugby.jpg|thumb|right|px200|[[Rugby VLF transmitter]]]]
*One of the most notable landmarks around Rugby is the [[Rugby VLF transmitter]], a large radio transmitting station located just to the east of the town. The station was opened in 1926 and has been used to transmit the [[MSF time signal]]. Several of the masts however were decommissioned and demolished by explosives in 2004, although a few including 4 of the biggest masts still remain. (Firing the explosive charges was delayed by [[rabbit]]s gnawing the wires.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/3823335.stm BBC News 20 June, 2004. ''Rabbits delay masts' demolition''</ref>)
*One of the most notable landmarks around Rugby is the [[Rugby VLF transmitter]], a large radio transmitting station located just to the east of the town. The station was opened in 1926 and has been used to transmit the [[MSF time signal]]. Several of the masts however were decommissioned and demolished by explosives in 2004, although a few including 4 of the biggest masts still remain. (Firing the explosive charges was delayed by [[rabbit]]s gnawing the wires.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/3823335.stm BBC News 20 June, 2004. ''Rabbits delay masts' demolition''</ref>)
*Another local landmark is the giant [[Rugby Cement]] works on the west of the town, which can be seen for many miles. 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 (television)|Demolition]].<ref>http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/D/demolition/worst2.html C3 Demolition</ref> 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]].<ref>http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1483240?lang=_e®ion=Midlands%20Region EA Court Case details</ref>
*Another local landmark is the giant [[Rugby Cement]] works on the west of the town, which can be seen for many miles. 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 (television)|Demolition]].<ref>http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/D/demolition/worst2.html C3 Demolition</ref> 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]].<ref>http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1483240?lang=_e®ion=Midlands%20Region EA Court Case details</ref>
*Several [[statues]] stand in Rugby 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 commemorating 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.
*Several [[statues]] stand in Rugby 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 commemorating 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.
*[[Image:St.Maries.jpg|thumb|[[St.Maries]]]]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 [[King Henry III of England|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]].
*[[Image:St.Maries.jpg|thumb|px150|[[St.Maries]]]]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 [[King Henry III of England|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]].
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==Politics==
==Politics==
[[Image:Rugby town hall.jpg|thumb|right|Rugby Town Hall - The headquarters of Rugby Borough Council]]
[[Image:Rugby town hall.jpg|thumb|270px|right|Rugby Town Hall - The headquarters of Rugby Borough Council]]
Rugby is administered by two [[local government in the United Kingdom|local authorities]]: [[Rugby (borough)|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 [[civil parish|unparished]] and so does not have its own [[town council]].
Rugby is administered by two [[local government in the United Kingdom|local authorities]]: [[Rugby (borough)|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 [[civil parish|unparished]] and so does not have its own [[town council]].
The town centre: Market Place, looking west from Church Street
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.[2] 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.[3]
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.
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.
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[4]
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[5]
In the postwar years, Rugby became well served by the motorway network, with the M1 and M6 merging close to the town.
The town centre is mostly Victorian and early 20th century, however a few much older buildings survive, along with some more modern developments. Much architecture in Rugby including Rugby School and St Andrews church, was designed by William Butterfield in the 19th century.
Rugby town centre includes numerous restaurants of various kinds, many pubs, and two nightclubs. In 2002, Brownsover Fish Bar on Hollowell Way, Brownsover, was named as the best seller of Fish and Chips in the country.[6] The town centre is noted for its large number of pubs, and was for many years in the Guinness Book of Records for having the second highest number of pubs per square mile in England [citation needed].
Regent Street with St Andrews Church
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.
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.
One of the most notable landmarks around Rugby is the Rugby VLF transmitter, a large radio transmitting station located just to the east of the town. The station was opened in 1926 and has been used to transmit the MSF time signal. Several of the masts however were decommissioned and demolished by explosives in 2004, although a few including 4 of the biggest masts still remain. (Firing the explosive charges was delayed by rabbits gnawing the wires.[7])
Another local landmark is the giant Rugby Cement works on the west of the town, which can be seen for many miles. 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.[8] 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.[9]
William Webb Ellis statue
Several statues stand in Rugby 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 commemorating 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.
File:St.Maries.jpgSt.MariesSt 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 on Dunchurch Road. It is one of the town's most well known landmarks as it is quite dominant in the skyline. It's spire has the tallest in Warwickshire. The church was built in 1872, designed by Pugin in the Early English style.
Buses run to Coventry, Leamington Spa, Leicester and Northampton as well as serving the major estates of the town on a regular basis.
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 looks shaky, but it is still the largest private employer in Rugby. Alstom have now sold of the power conversion division of the business to become Converteam, which remains a large private employer in Rugby.
Rugby Cement works
Another major industry in Rugby is cement making; the giant Rugby Cement works on the western outskirts of the town makes cement from the local JurassicLias limestone. The cement industry in Rugby dates back to the 1860s. In the mid-1990s the Rugby Cement plant at nearby Southam was closed, and all production was moved to the Rugby plant which was dramatically enlarged and is 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. Both of these are nearer to Coventry, but are also major employers in Rugby.
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.
In 1983 Rugby became part of the parliamentary constituency of Rugby and Kenilworth, one of the Midland's most marginal seats. Between 1983 and 1997 Jim Pawsey was the Conservative Member of Parliament, losing in 1997 to Labour'sAndy King.
From 1885 until 1983 Rugby was a contituency in itself. Following the recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England that Warwickshire be allocated a sixth parliamentary seat, a new constituency of Kenilworth and Southam has been created to the south of Rugby with effect from the next general election, 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 margin constituency and Jeremy Wright has indicated his intention of standing for the new Kenilworth and Southam seat at the next general election.
