Cawston is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

and

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

village close to the south west of Rugby, on the A4071 (which is in turn just one mile from the M45). The population of the civil parish at the 2021 census was 5,192. For hundreds of years the village was basically a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

and the two settlements remained separate despite Rugby's continued growth. However, in 2003–04 a new housing development, Cawston Grange, was completed all but connecting the two settlements. Cawston Grange

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

was built at the same time to educate children in the area aged 4–11 and there is a nursery for pre-school children as well as shops. One of the most significant older buildings in the village is Cawston House. It was built in 1545 by Edward Boughton. The house has been in the hands of several notable titled families and was also used as a convalescent home for troops from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, a girls' school between 1938 and 1958, and a

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

unit for an engineering company. The house was greatly altered in 1907 and remains the same externally to this day. In 2004 the house was bought by a developer and sub-divided to make a retirement village. The old Rugby to Leamington

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line ran through the old village (this closure predates the Beeching cuts, but part was still used as a freight line to Rugby Cement works at Long Itchington) and its path can still be walked along. The railway bridge over the A4071 has in recent years gained minor fame for the 'witty' slogans written on it. Examples of such (referring to a different village near Rugby) are "Home rule for Crick" and "Fly Crick air". In August 2007 construction of the Rugby Western Relief Road started just west of the village, a project which was completed in 2010.

References

External links

Multimap Image of Cawston (can zoom in and out)A more detailed history of Cawston House
{{authority control Villages in Warwickshire Rugby, Warwickshire