History of Rugby School

Rugby was founded in 1567 by the will of Lawrence Sheriff, Grocer and Spice Merchant to Queen Elizabeth I. His Trustees established a free endowed Grammar School for the boys of Rugby and Brownsover.

By 1667 Rugby was acquiring a name for scholarship and developed rapidly under a series of outstanding masters including Henry Holyoake (1688-1731), who drew boys from as far afield as Cheshire, Kent and Somerset.

The school moved from Church Road, Rugby to occupy a manor house on the present site of School House and The Close in 1750. This is where key events such as the invention and development of rugby football have taken place. Just over 400 years after after it was founded, in 1975, Rugby School started a new chapter as a co-education school admitting three girls into the upper school, by 1998 it was fully co-educational. Today the School has over 800 students.

For more information on the School's history visit the main School website. 

You can also find more information find more information at:

• The Rugby Racket
• research/finding aids
• Useful Links