ADVICE RATING |
 4.74 (Highly recommend) from 14 votes (178 Visits) |
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Holidaying in Rugby, England – what to do in my Hometown |
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I’ve been living in Rugby for nearly 12 years now, so I'm almost a local now! Like most Rugbeans, work brought me here. It’s one of those places everyone’s heard of (thanks to the sport named after it’s public school) but most people, even in England,
haven’t a clue where it actually is! It’s actually very centrally placed in the "golden triangle" for freight – ie from this area, freight can reach every part of mainland Britain within one working day. Hence we have a LOT of warehouses around here, and a lot of migrant workers, so you will hear plenty of other languages if you’re not an English speaker! Technically we’re on the boundary of the East and West Midlands in England.
If you’re holidaying here, the big freight routes up the motorways means you can explore a large part of England by using Rugby as a base. By rail you can be in London or Birmingham in an hour. By road you can be as far as Sheffield, Cambridge, Watford or Oxford in an hour too. In half an hour you can be in the city of Coventry looking at the ruined cathedral (burned out during bombing in World War 2) and it’s modern replacement or taking in Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-on-Avon.
Or you can stay and look around Rugby! The main draw is Rugby School. They have a museum, with a bit of history on the School and the sport. But best of all is the guided tour taken by one of the current pupils, where you get to look in some of the buildings and of course at The Close, where that naughty boy William Webb Ellis allegedly picked up the ball during a game of School Football (the whole school played it – another excuse for a riot if you ask me!) and ran with it. Also around Rugby are the North Oxford Canal, which is good for walking, cycling or you can hire a narrowboat for a day or a holiday, or if you like walking or cycling then there’s also a 4 mile stretch of disused railway, the old Great Central Railway. If you want to stretch your legs (and let the kids run off some energy), then it’s off to Coombe Abbey for a walk through the woodlands. If you plan ahead, they have medieval banquets in the hotel which is in the old Abbey – something I haven’t got round to doing myself yet! Rugby also has some fantastic floral displays and regularly does well in the Britain in Bloom competition (well done to my former colleagues!).
And just in case you’re tempted, here is the link to the Tourist Information site!
(June 2007) (
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Shelley
