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Rugby in Warwick County England History and GeographyRUGBY, a market town and parish in the Rugby division of the hundred of KNIGBTLOW, county of WARWICK, 16½ miles (E.N.E.) from Warwick, and 83 (N.W. by N.) from London, containing 2300 inhabitants. At this place, anciently called Rocheberie, is supposed to have been one of those fortresses which Stephen, expecting Matilda's invasion, permitted his nobles to erect upon their estates; it obtained also the name of Rokeby from its owner, Henry de Rokeby, in the reign of Henry III., and from this its present appellation is derived. The town is pleasantly situated opon rising ground, on the south side of the Avon: it consists of one street leading to the market-place, parallel with which, on the one side, is a narrower street, in which the shambles are placed, and on the other a handsome and spacious street leading to the church. The houses are in general well built of brick, and of modern appearance, though occasionally intermixed with some of ancient character, with plastered walls and thatched roofs. The Oxford canal passes in the vicinity. The market, which is well attended, and abundantly supplied with corn, and provisions of every kind, is on Saturday: thirteen fairs are held annually, but the greater number are only cattle markets; these are held on the second Tuesday after Twelfth day, February 17th, March 31st, the last Monday in April, May 5th (which is chiefly a pleasure fair), the second Monday in June, July 7th, the ninth Monday before New Michaelmas-day, August 21st, the Monday before Michaelmas-day, the Monday preceding the 22nd of October, November 22nd (which is a very great horse fair), the Tuesday before St. Thomas' day, and the Monday after Christmas-day. A constable and headborough are appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Coventry, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king's books at £17. 19. 2., and in the patronage of Earl Craven. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is an ancient structure, in the early style of English architecture, with a massive square embattled tower, strengthened by buttresses, and a turret at the south-east angle, to which there is no entrance but from within the church, and which appears to have been erected as a place of security, after the demolition of the castle; the roof of the nave is supported on massive octagonal pillars and sharply - pointed arches, of which those nearer to the chancel are much more lofty than the others: the building is at present undergoing considerable enlargement, from a plan by Mr. Rickman. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. The grammar school, which is the distinguishing feature in Rugby, is a noble and magnificent establishment, and has for many years maintained a high degree of reputation. It was founded in the 9th of Elizabeth, by Lawrence Sheriff, of London, grocer, a native of Brownsover, a neighbouring hamlet, in the parish of Clifton, who endowed it with a house and land in that parish, and with about eight acres of land, called the Conduit close, near the Foundling Hospital, London. At that time the income was inconsiderable, and in the year 1780, the rental did not exceed £116 per annum; but from the subsequent improvement of the estate, by the erection of numerous dwelling-houses, and the laying out of several streets upon the site, the revenue has been augmented to more than £5000 per annum. The school is under the superintendence of twelve trustees, who appoint the head master, with a fixed salary of £113. 6. 8., a house and some land, and an annual payment of £16. 5. 6. for every boy on the foundation, of which latter sum he pays £6. 6. to the six assistant classical masters, £2. 2. to the master of modern languages, and £1. 11. 6. to the mathematical master; instruction in these two last branches of literature forming a part of the regular course of education pursued at the school. The assistant classical masters also receive severally from the trustees a permanent salary of £120 per annum, and salaries are also given to a writing-master and a drawing-master. By a late regulation of the trustees, the number of boys not on the foundation is never to exceed two hundred and sixty; the actual number at present (November 1830) is about two hundred and thirty, besides about forty foundationers. Belonging to this noble establishment are twenty-one exhibitions of £60 per annum, tenable for seven years, in either of the Universities; and several fellowships, varying in value from £100 to £300 per annum, but not exceeding £1000 per annum in the aggregate amount, which are given exclusively to the head master and ushers, who may choose to retire after having been ten years in the establishment. The school premises were taken down and rebuilt in 1808; they form a splendid range of building, in the Elizabethan style of architecture; the principal entrance is under a square gateway tower, with octagonal turrets at the angles, through a richly-groined archway, above which is a beautiful oriel window embellished with stained glass, into a spacious quadrangle, of which two sides are cloistered. The school-rooms are lofty, and the great school, as it is called, in which the annual Prize Compositions are recited, on the Wednesday in Easter-week, is of large dimensions and of stately elevation. The room in the gateway tower, over the principal entrance, is appropriated to the school library. Through an archway diagonally opposite to the principal entrance is the approach to the chapel, a detached and elegant edifice, in the later style of English architecture, to which there is also an entrance from the public road: the sides of the building arestrengthened with ornamented buttresses, and relieved by three elegant windows with dripstones resting on antique heads; and the east and west ends are decorated with crocketed pinnacles at the angles, and a cross on the apex of the gable. The interior is fitted up like the choir of a cathedral; the roof, which is flat and painted to resemble oak, is panelled, and ribbed with diagonal intersections; the east window is enriched with tracery, and at the west end are two canopied seats for the head master and the chaplain, over which is a gallery, with an organ of appropriate design. On the south side, near the altar, is a white monument of marble, by Chantrey, erected to the memory of the late Dr. James, head master, in which he is represented in a sitting posture, reading, with several volumes at his feet. The entrance to the head master's apartments is through a large octangular turret forming the hall and staircase, and the whole range of buildings is relieved with turrets at various intervals. From the funds of this institution are supported twelve almshouses, lately, rebuilt in a corresponding style of architecture, for twelve aged men, who have each two apartments and a garden, a gown, two tons of coal annually, and a weekly allowance of seven shillings and sixpence. Boys are eligible to the school, and men to the almshouses, who live within ten miles of the town, if in the county of Warwick, or within five miles, if in any other county. A charity school was founded, in 1707, by Mr. Elborough, who endowed it with a house and fifty acres of land for the instruction of thirty boys and girls: it is under the direction of six trustees, who appoint the master, with a salary of £20 per annum, a house, and two acres of land. Adjoining the school, and supported out of the same funds, are six almshouses for six aged widows, who receive half a ton of coal annually, a stuff gown every two years, and an allowance of three shillings per week. There are various charitable bequests for distribution among the poor. At Lawford, one mile west from Rugby, are large quarries of bluelias, covered with a thick bed of gravel, in which elephants' bones, and the remains of other animals, have been found in considerable quantities. On the road to Lawford is a Roman tumulus; and at Brownsover, one mile northwest of Rugby, is an earthwork, supposed to be a British camp, surrounded by the rivers Swift and Avon; skeletons buried in the ancient British manner, with the limbs contracted, have been discovered here. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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