Rugby ... Home of Webb Ellis, Rupert Brooke, James Gilbert and me!!!!! (Rugby in General)

Member Name: KELLY170980

Product:	Rugby in General
Date:	12/02/09 (257 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Historic town full of interesting stories

Disadvantages: Some of the chav's

Well as a life long rugbian, I thought I'd write about my lovely hometown of Rugby, I hear people slate our town all the time, whether it be work colleagues or friends or even past reviews etc, but to be honest although there obviously are some bad points about Rugby, there are those in every town of the UK, we all have our bad areas, overall I think Rugby is a really nice town, with some great people and a lot of history, and I think that if you know what places to look at and what Rugby has to offer you will not be disappointed.

*****Places to visit that come be of interest*****

**Webb Ellis Rugby Museum**

The game of Rugby football was invented in our town by the famous Rugbian William Webb Ellis and he has been celebrated by having a pub names after him, a statue and also a museum.
The museum is based in the town centre, just opposite the lovely statue of William on St Mathews street; the museum is based in the same building where James Gilbert made the first Rugby ball. The museum is packed full of memorabilia celebrating the game of Rugby and also loads of History about the game of rugby and Mr. Webb Ellis.
The museum is open Monday to Saturday 0900-1700 and the admission is free of charge.
If you are a rugby fan you will love it and also there are lots of things to buy, including a genuine Gilbert Football.


**Rugby school museum**

We have one of the oldest and the best public schools in England, Rugby school, I'm not sure if many of you have read Tom Browns schooldays by Thomas Hughes but this was based on this school and I think every Rugby child is made to read this book at school. (Thomas Hughes has a lovely statue of himself also outside the speech rooms) Some of the schools other famous pupils include Neville Chamberlain, Lewis Carroll, Matthew Arnold and Salman Rushdie and again Mr. William Webb Ellis.
There are Guided tours of the School available so you will be able to see the various buildings and locations which show you the history of the school. The tours though are only carried out on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays at 2pm .The tour lasts about 1½ hours. Some or all of the following buildings will be included in the tour:
* The Old Big School (original classroom)
* Temple Speech Room
* The Chapel
* The Close and surroundings
* The Old Gymnasium
* The Museum and Shop
Tours begin in the Bookshop which is on Barby Road and costs £5.95 per person.

**Other places to visit**

There are loads more places to visit which include places such as the Rugby Art gallery and museum, Draycote waters, Coombe Abbey, and all the gunpowder plot buildings in Dunchurch which is a small village just on the outskirts of Rugby.

**Places to eat**

**Brownsover Hall Hotel**

Brownsover Hall Hotel in Brownsover, Rugby is a beautiful gothic hotel which does some great lunches and is a lovely place to stay also. (I have done a review of this hotel previously) This building is steeped in history also and worth a visit not only for lunch but also to see where Sir Frank Whittle designed the worlds first prototype of the jet engine in what they call the Drawing room, its quite nice to see while obviously tucking into there gorgeous food and also there are loads of ghost stories etc that the staff love telling.

**Rupert Brooke café**

This café is names after another famous rumbaing Mr Rupert Brooke. Rugby was the birthplace of Rupert Brooke, he was born in a house a few doors down from where my mother in law lives actually on hillmorton rd. Rupert Brooke was a famous first world war poet, his most well known poem and the one that I would say is most familiar to people is the Soldier.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

(BEFORE ANYONE SLATES ME FOR PUTTING IN A POEM, I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO DETRACT FROM THE REVIEW, BUT I THOUGHT IT MAYBE INTERESTING)

It's the most beautiful poem and I can remember my granddad teaching me this poem when I was younger and telling me all about Rupert Brooke, apparently his father knew him well.

Anyway this café does a selection of sandwiches and meals at great prices and you are always guaranteed a warm welcome and great service.
They do a great ommlette, and I just like the fact that it's a local business that's been there for as long as I can remember.

**Other places to eat**

There are many other places to eat to suit all budgets, there are all your usual chain places, such as whetherspoons, Brewster's, pizza hut, café Uno etc etc.We also have some wonderful restaurants such as The Huntsman (Dunchurch) and Casa loco (see previous reviews)


**Shopping**

Rugby does not have the best selection when it comes to shopping but we have a ok range for the size of our town including all the usual chains such as topshop, burtons, Dorothy Perkins, boots, next, wilko's, poundland, Argos etc etc.

We have a lovely market that although is not as good as it used to be when I was a little girl, is still lovely especially for fruit and veg.

We also have some great little independent stores such as Eliza Doolittle, terracotta, abraxas and many more.

**Entertainment**

The local theatre on Henry Street has some great shows including the up and coming production of little women.
We also have the Benn hall in Rugby which have some great entertainment including tribute bands, supper dances, come dancing evenings, toy fairs, wedding fairs etc and the great Weight watchers classes....yuck!!!!

We have so many pubs I could not even begin to list them, there are loads in the town centre, but I tend to stay clear of these places, as they always tend to make me feel old!! Haha!! But when I was a younger lady, they were a great laugh.
Some of the pubs on the outskirts and also the locals are really nice.

There are also some great themed evenings at local hotels and restaurants for eg. The Vermillion restaurant do a great Spanish themed evening with flamenco and a Spanish singer and music and for 20 pound you get paella and sangria for two people, really nice evening.

**Summary**

There are some great schools, great areas, great local clubs and chairities, and so much history, all in all I love Rugby and am proud to be a true Rugbian.
I could obviously go on and on about my home town, but I won't all I will say is that is defiantly worth a visit and we have a lot to offer for a little town.

Summary: Great town full of history, nice places to eat and drink and stay and visit