[3] Rugby remained a small and fairly unimportant town until the mid-19th century, when a major railway junction was established there, which spurred the development of industry and the rapid growth of population.

Rugby's position on a hill overlooking the Avon, made it an ideal location for a defended Dobunni watch settlement.

[4][9] The Rugby area has associations with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605: On the eve of the plot, the plotters stayed at the 'Lion Inn' (now a private residence called 'Guy Fawkes House') in nearby Dunchurch, convened by Sir Everard Digby, awaiting news of Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

If he had been successful they planned to kidnap the King's daughter Princess Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey in the countryside between Rugby and Coventry.

[10][11] During the English Civil War, one of the earliest armed confrontations of the conflict took place at the nearby village of Kilsby in August 1642.

[4][7] Rugby School was founded in 1567 with money left in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, a locally born man, who had moved to London and made his fortune as the grocer to Queen Elizabeth I.

Its growth was slow, due in part to the nearby markets at Dunchurch and Hillmorton which were better positioned in terms of road traffic.

Rugby's importance and population increased more rapidly during the late 18th and early 19th century due to the growing national reputation of Rugby School, which had moved from its original location at a (now long vanished) schoolhouse north of St Andrew's Church, to its present location south of the town centre by 1750.

[17][4] A factory producing corsets was opened in 1882, employing local women, this survived until 1992, by which time it was making swimwear.

Within a short time, their product range expanded, and a wide array of electrical equipment came to be produced by BTH at Rugby.

[21] The local board's main responsibilities were to provide the town with infrastructure such as paved roads, street lighting, clean drinking water and sewerage.

The invention of the game is credited to William Webb Ellis, a Rugby School pupil who, according to legend, broke the existing rules of football by picking up the ball and running with it at a match played in 1823.

[3] Hughes later set up a colony in America for the younger sons of the English gentry, who could not inherit under the laws of primogeniture, naming the town Rugby.

Whittle is commemorated in Rugby by a modern sculpture near the town hall dating from 2005, made by Stephen Broadbent.

Rugby also includes the areas of New Bilton, Overslade, Hillside and the partially constructed Houlton housing development.

Summers are highly variable depending on wind patterns, with an all-time record of 38.7 °C (101.7 °F) in spite of the mild averages.

[43] The museum displays Roman artefacts excavated from the nearby Romano-British town of Tripontium, as well as an exhibition of the social history of Rugby.

The poet Rupert Brooke was born and grew up in Rugby, and is commemorated in the town by a statue in Regent Place.

[46] In the 1980s the influential rock band Spacemen 3 was formed in Rugby by the local musicians Jason Pierce and Pete Kember.

[58] Rugby remains an engineering centre and has a long history of producing gas and steam turbines and electrical equipment.

[69] Rugby is often described as being part of the area known as the golden logistics triangle due to its central location and good transport links.

[58] In 2017 Hermes opened its 'Midlands Super Hub' parcel delivery depot at the Rugby Gateway development to the north of the town, which is the largest of its type in the UK.

[74] In addition a number of trade, professional and charitable organisations have headquarters in Rugby, including the Institution of Chemical Engineers,[75] the Institution of Lighting Professionals,[76] the Master Locksmiths Association,[77] the Auto-Cycle Union,[78] the Oral Health Foundation,[79] and the development charity Practical Action.

The main tower of the cement works stands at 400 feet (120 m) tall,[84] and can be seen from as far away as the Cotswolds and the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire.

[85] The landmark is controversial; 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.

[86] 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 Rupert Brooke statue is situated at the forked junction of Regent Street on the green and commemorates his contribution to poetry.

Thomas Hughes' statue stands in the gardens of the Temple Reading Rooms (the central library of Rugby school) on Barby Road.

The oldest surviving part of the church is the 22 metre high west tower which bears strong resemblance to a castle turret, the west tower was possibly built during the reign of Henry III (1216–1272) to serve a defensive as well as religious role, and is Rugby's oldest building.

[98][99][100] Places of interest in the town include: Places of interest around Rugby include: Rugby railway station is a principal stop on the West Coast Main Line, with frequent regular services to London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Stafford, Crewe and Northampton.