19th century development
Rugby really came into its own in the 19th century. Rugby School rose to national prominence in the 1820s under the headmastership of Dr Thomas Arnold, due to his teaching methods, Public School education in England underwent radical change. Most of the present school buildings date from this period.
Rugby developed rapidly with the coming of the railways. In the 1830s The London and Birmingham Railway, which was an early part of what later became the West Coast Mainline, was built through Rugby, which at the time was a small town with a population of around 2,500.
In the 1840s Rugby was chosen, as the point at which the Midland Counties Railway, which linked the East Midlands, and North East England, would form a junction to the London and Birmingham railway.
Immediately Rugby became the busiest and most important railway junction in Britain. It became even more important, when a railway line which linked to the north west of England, also formed a junction at Rugby. A number of other less important railways were also built into the town.
For 25 years Rugby was the most important railway junction in the country, with nearly all rail traffic between London, the Midlands, the north of England, Scotland, and north Wales passing through Rugby junction.
By the 1860s the railway through Rugby had become extremely congested, so much so, that it was not uncommon for trains to queue for hours to pass through Rugby, a situation which caused much anger and frustration amongst travelers, for whom Rugby became a byword for delays and frustration. Charles Dickens lampooned it in his short story Mugby Junction (1866).
In order to relieve this congestion a new line, now called the Midland Main Line, with a more direct route to London was built, avoiding Rugby. Much traffic was diverted onto the new line and Rugby's importance as a railway junction, although still important, was much diminished.
Rugby grew rapidly as a railway town with its population reaching 10,000 by the 1870s, with the railways employing most of the population. Due to its transport links, many engineering and manufacturing industries located in Rugby, the cement industry also began.
20th century
In the 20th century the population continued to grow reaching 40,000 by the 1930s. Rugby became a borough in 1932.
In the late 1930s the inventor of the jet engine Frank Whittle (1907-1996) worked at the British Thomson-Houston works in Rugby, and prototypes were built in Rugby of some of the world's first Turbojet engines.
Some of his work was later carried out in the nearby town of Lutterworth.
In the postwar years Rugby became a centre of the national motorway network. Two of Britain's most important motorways, the M1 and M6 and also the M45, run close to the town.
At the same time several of the railway lines which radiated from Rugby were closed as part of the Beeching axe including the once hugely important Midland Counties Railway in 1961. As of 2003, only the West Coast Mainline still serves the town.
In the postwar years, Rugby gained a substantial Afro-Caribbean community, and a sizeable community from the Indian sub-continent making Rugby a multi-cultural town.
External Links
There are several places in the USA called Rugby. see, Rugby, North Dakota, Rugby, Tennessee.