Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, who had made his fortune supplying groceries to Queen Elizabeth I of England. It is one of the nine "great" English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868.
Since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of that town.
Gradually, however, the nature of the school shifted to become fee-paying, and so a new school – Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School – was founded to continue Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions; that school receives a substantial proportion of the endowment income from Lawrence Sheriff's estate every year. In addition, Rugby School continues to offer a large number of scholarship places for outstanding students from the local community, who come from state (maintained) primary schools in the immediate vicinity of Rugby. The school's new Arnold Foundation has been established to enable it to offer similar support to children from outside the Rugby area.
The school's most famous headmaster was Dr. Thomas Arnold.
Appointed in 1828 he executed many reforms to the school curriculum and administration and was immortalised in Thomas Hughes' book Tom Brown's School Days. It was Arnold's reforms, with their emphasis on sport, 'fair play' and the system of allocating responsibility to boys, that led the British Public School system towards the 'Muscular Christianity' ethos which drove the British Imperial expansion. Since then, this system has been copied around the world, so Arnold is effectively the father of secondary education.
This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his arms and ran with it thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game. A.D. 1823
The game of Rugby owes its name to the school. The legend of William Webb Ellis and the origin of the game is commemorated by a plaque. The story has been known to be a myth since it was first investigated by the Old Rugbeian Society (renamed the Rugbeian Society) in 1895. There were no standard rules for football during Webb Ellis's time at Rugby (1816–1825) and most varieties involved carrying the ball. The games played at Rugby were organized by the students and not the masters, the rules of the game played at Rugby and elsewhere were a matter of custom and were not written down. They were frequently changed and modified with each new intake of students. The sole source of the story is credited to one Matthew Bloxam (a former student, but not a contemporary of Webb Ellis) in October 1876 (four years after the death of Webb Ellis) in a letter to the school newspaper (The Meteor) whereby he quotes some unknown friend relating the story to him. He elaborated on the story some three years later in another letter to The Meteor, but shed no further light on its source. Richard Lindon is credited for the invention of the "Oval" rugby ball, the rubber inflatable bladder and the brass hand pump. Richard Lindon a Boot and Shoemaker had premises immediately across the street from Rugby Schools main entrance in Lawrence Sheriff Street. No doubt the boys of Rugby School had significant input into their required design.
The core of the school (which contains School House, featured in Tom Brown's Schooldays) was completed in 1815 and is built around the Old Quad (quadrangle), with its fine and graceful Georgian architecture. Especially notable rooms are the Upper Bench (an intimate space with a book-lined gallery), the Old Hall of School House, and the Old Big School (which makes up one side of the quadrangle, and was once the location for teaching all junior pupils). Thomas Hughes (like his fictional hero, Tom Brown) once carved his name onto the hands of the school clock, situated on a tower above the Old Quad. The polychrome school chapel and new quadrangle were designed by the well-known VictorianGothic revival architect William Butterfield in 1875. Lord Peter Wimsey, the private investigator created by Dorothy L. Sayers, rather unkindly referred to the school as little more than a railway junction (see David Cannadine (1994) Aspects of Aristocracy).
Rugby School has both day and boarding-pupils, the latter in the majority. Originally it was for boys only, but girls have been admitted to the sixth form since 1975. It went fully co-educational in 1995.
Distinction: Award for slightly less exceptional work than a Copy
Levee or Pig: Senior school prefect
Old Guard: Sports team of teachers
Pig Hut run: Physical punishment of running to Levee hut
Pontines: 2nd XV rugby pitch
Schtig: deregatory slang for local resident, normally wearing sports clothing and/or a baseball cap
Sixth: House prefect
Speckle: To sack someone from being a House Sixth
Stodge: School tuck shop
Stripe: To sack someone from being a Levee (the Levee tie is striped)
Tanner or Loser: Day-boy (from 'Town House')
Tick: To salute a Beak in the street, by lifting an index finger to shoulder level
Topos: Lavatory (from Greek τόπος, meaning 'a place')
Tosh: The old 66 2/3 yard open-air swimming pool, also used as a skating rink in winter, demolished by the School Governors in 1989 and replaced with a basket-ball court and a smaller indoor swimming pool. In some houses a name given to a large communal shower room. Also, a bath (sb.) or to take a bath
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