Rugeley (/ˈruːdʒli/ ROOJ-lee) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England.

Rugeley is twinned with Western Springs, Illinois and, in July 1962, both towns made telephone history on national television when the chairman of Rugeley Urban District Council made the first telephone call via the new Telstar satellite to the mayor of Western Springs.

During the Industrial Revolution the economy of Rugeley benefited from the construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal and then from it becoming a junction on the railway network.

Rugeley was an agricultural community for hundreds of years and held regular sheep, cattle and horse fairs.

Rugeley Trent Valley lies on the West Coast Main Line; it has a regular hourly service to London via Lichfield, Nuneaton, Rugby and Milton Keynes, and to Crewe via Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent.

Regular bus services 826 and 828 link Rugeley to the town of Stafford (going north-west) and city of Lichfield (going south).

These Chaserider operated routes also link nearby rural villages of Colwich and Great Haywood.

The major roads into Rugeley are the A460 from Wolverhampton and the A51, via Tamworth, Lichfield to Stone before going through Nantwich and ending at Chester.

A new eastern bypass was opened in 2007, to facilitate the development of new employment areas on the former colliery site and to reduce congestion in the town centre.

BBC Midlands Today and ITV News Central cover Rugeley from studios in Birmingham.

As former mining towns, Rugeley including the Brereton area suffer from a moderate level of social deprivation, with parts of the town consisting of council or ex-council house stock (such as the Springfield Estate and parts of Brereton) or former National Coal Board housing, such as the Pear Tree Estate.

However, on the fringes of Rugeley there is more affluence, and some of the older Georgian streets including the conservation area of Crossley Stone or waterfront properties along the Trent and Mersey Canal.

It is in the Gothic revival style of the 19th Century and was designed by Charles Hansom and built between 1849 and 1851 out of local stone.

The Methodist church of Rugeley is named after St Paul and located close to the town centre on Lichfield Street.

[19] The Lea Hall Social Club, which underwent extensive renovation between 2005 and 2011, serves Rugeley residents with a variety of facilities including cricket and football pitches, a crown bowling green.

Etching Hill Tennis Club has offered casual and competitive hard court play to members since 1952.

A Christmas lights switch-on during December includes a market and late-night opening of shops, with the local traders association joining in the organising of street entertainment.

The fourth British Quidditch Cup took place on 11 and 12 March 2017, with 32 teams competing, and the winners were Velociraptors QC.

In February 2020 a new "Fringe Festival" was announced with a variety of events intended to be held in the town over the May Bank Holiday.

Following many years of demolition and regeneration, a number of large industrial units have been built on the Towers Business Park, a brownfield site situated on the former ground of the colliery.

In August 2011, Amazon.co.uk opened a 700,000 sq ft fulfillment centre on the Towers Park,[24] creating between 700[25] and 900[26] full-time jobs as well as generating a large pool of seasonal work around Christmas.

There will be over 12 acres used for employment as well as a riverside country park and a new water sports leisure facility at the Borrow Pit Lake.