Brownsover is a residential and commercial area of
Rugby, Warwickshire in England, about miles north of the town centre. The area is named after the original
hamlet of Brownsover. Since 1960, the area has been subsumed by the expansion of Rugby, with the construction of a number of housing estates, industrial estates and retail parks.
'Old' Brownsover
The original hamlet of Brownsover still exists, to the west of
A426 "Leicester Road". It was originally a hamlet within the
parish of
Clifton-upon-Dunsmore
Clifton-upon-Dunsmore is a village and civil parish in the Rugby borough of Warwickshire in England on the north-eastern outskirts of Rugby, approximately from Rugby town centre. The population of the parish taken at the 2011 census was 1, ...
, and was mentioned in the
Domesday Book as "Gaura". In 1932 it was incorporated into the borough of Rugby.
In 1931 the parish had a population of 391.
Brownsover Hall is situated here, this
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
was rebuilt in the
Victorian era by the
Ward-Boughton-Leigh family who were the principal landowners in the area.
The hall has now become a large hotel and conference centre. Brownsover Hall is also where
Frank Whittle developed the
jet engine in the 1930s.
The hamlet also contains an old house which is one place where
Lawrence Sheriff
Lawrence Sheriff (or Sheriffe) (c. 1515 or 1516 – September 1567) was a Tudor merchant and benefactor, who was notable for being grocer to Queen Elizabeth I, and for creating Rugby School through an endowment in his will.
Not much is known abo ...
(c1515-1567), the founder of
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...
, may have been born, although it is more likely he was born in Rugby. Sheriff certainly had links to Brownsover, as he purchased the rectory and farm of Brownsover in 1562.
The old (
C of E
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
)
parish church of
St. Michael & All Angels was founded in the 12th century as a
chapel of ease
A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently.
Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...
, and was almost entirely rebuilt by
Sir George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
in 1877 for Allesley Boughton-
Leigh
Leigh may refer to:
Places In England
Pronounced :
* Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan
** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency)
* Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
Pronounced :
* Leigh, Dorset
* Leigh, Gloucestershire
* Leigh, Kent
* Leigh, Staff ...
.
The
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chri ...
has an interesting collection of English and foreign carved
woodwork
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
History
Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials ...
, including a splendid
organ case, made in 1660 for
St John's College, Cambridge. There is one
armorial
A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms.
The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...
monumental inscription in the floor of the church, the
grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as gravey ...
of
John Howkins
John Anthony Howkins (born 3 August 1945) is a British author and speaker on Creative Industries, particularly the development of this economic sector in China. He is visiting professor, University of Lincoln, England, and vice dean an ...
(1579-1678), a wealthy lawyer who owned the estate of
''Pinchbank'' in
South Mimms
South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway and is perhaps more widely known because ...
,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouri ...
. He was the great-nephew of Lawrence Sheriff. The church is now closed to regular use and has been replaced by a modern place of worship - Christchurch in Helvellyn Way, new Brownsover. Brownsover is mentioned in
Tom Brown's Schooldays.
'New' Brownsover
The new part of Brownsover, to the east of Leicester Road, contains modern
housing estates built mostly during the 1960s and 70s. More recently, several building programmes have been completed, specifically in the areas referred to as 'Strawberry Fields' and 'Rectory Gardens', in the 1990s, with two other projects nearing completion. These two relatively new developments are considered more to the standards of the areas such as Hillmorton and are very near to Clifton upon dunsmore.
There are three local schools: Boughton Leigh Infants and Boughton Leigh Junior, which share a campus, and there is also the newer Brownsover Community School. The local church, Christchurch in Helvellyn Way, is an
ecumenical project involving
Anglicans
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
,
Methodists and
Baptists. Brownsover has a number of green spaces as well as the
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...
.
Education
Primary education
Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
is provided by Boughton Leigh Junior School and Boughton Leigh Infant school, and Brownsover Community Infants School.
Oxford Canal and nature reserve
The
Oxford Canal runs through the Brownsover area. The original canal was built in the late 18th century, and was straightened out in the 1820s. Part of the original abandoned route of the canal was retained to act as a water feeder from the
River Swift
The River Swift is a 14-mile (23 km) long tributary of the River Avon that rises in south Leicestershire, and flows through the town of Lutterworth before joining the Avon at its confluence at Rugby in Warwickshire in the English Mid ...
; this stretch known as the 'Brownsover Arm' is no longer navigable, but is still water filled. The land around the old canal arm became the
Swift Valley Nature Reserve in 2003.
References
External links
Brownsover Hall Hotel at Pictures Of England
{{authority control
Areas of Rugby, Warwickshire
Former civil parishes in Warwickshire