Industrial Housing in Rugby

Railways

L.N.W.R.

To operate and maintain a railway requires people to work at places spread all along the line, often far from existing settlements. At places where stations are built accommodation for many staff are needed from opening day. People had to live within walking distance of work, and it was useful to the railway to be able to get hold of staff if something unexpected happened.

By providing houses for their staff the railway solved all these problems and the London and Birmingham Railway built several hundred houses along the line for the opening. The houses were each given a number and the earliest in Rugby were in the 700's. They were all near the new station in Newbold Road, on the west side both north and south of the railway.

O.S. 6" Map of 1884

at about twice original scale i.e. 12" per mile Map extract of Newbold Road

Remnant of Old Station Square

Click here for JPEG version
West side of square incorporated into Willans Works

When the Midland Railway junction was formed the station was moved to the bottom of Railway Terrace and further housing was needed for the increased staff. At what was now known as the 'Old Station' additional houses were built, with numbers just over 1000. Houses were also built at the east end of Wood Street beside the new goods yard. On the west side of Railway Terrace, north of Wood Street were built 6 villas for various managers.

Only the cottages in Wood Street remain from all the houses built in the town. The Railway Terrace villas were demolished in the 1970's along with most of the houses in Newbold Road. The Old Station became part of the Willans Engineering works and one side of the square remained until 1984.

G.C.R.

By the time the GCR had built the line it was short of money so avoided building new houses. For those staff that had to be housed it bought existing houses where possible. Therefore the Station Master at Rugby found himself living in an 18th century farm house beside the station.

Engineering Works

Willans and Robinson

This company moved a large existing factory to Rugby from London and so had to ensure the workers it moved had houses.

After the Second World War English Electric built houses in the new estates between Rugby and Bilton. They ended up with over 360 houses, some of which are still owned by the works.

The company also ran a hostel for apprentices in Dunchurch Road.

B.T.H.

As the B.T.H. works was a new venture only office staff moved from London and the company relied on normal housing developments to keep pace with people moving into the area to work. There were periods where new houses did not keep up with the growth of the works and people were commuting to Rugby by train from the outlying villages. The company did try to get more houses built but did not get involved with owning them.

B.T.H did provide hostel accommodation for apprentices and students buying several large houses in and around the town. These were closed in the late 1960's as university engineering training expanded.

Utilities

Water Companies have tended to provide staff houses for similar reasons to the railways. The group of 1960's houses in Mill Road are the newest industrial housing in Rugby.

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