Old Brownsover

ISBN 0-9510304-2-6

Brownsover was a well established village by the time of the Domesday Book and there is evidence of local inhabitation well before that. A great deal of what is known from 1086 until the Georgian era comes from manorial records and dealings in land of the rich and powerful. Later records tell us something of the life of the villagers, but by Victorian times the village was in decline as Rugby grew in importance. The village became part of Rugby in 1932.

Now the cluster of old and new houses hidden in the trees is a conservation area and does not rate the title of village. It manages to remain tranquil despite the roaring traffic of the nearby Leicester road and the busy Swift valley industrial estate.

Shirley John tells the story of the village for the first time in this 66 page illustrated A4 book. The front cover shows a modern photograph of the Old Parsonage bequeathed to Rugby School by its founder Lawrence Sheriff in 1567.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

This book won a Highly Commended certificate in the Village Ventures Awards for 2004. The certificate was presented to the History Group by Martin Dunne, Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire at a ceremony held in the Warwick Shire Hall on 27th November 2004.

Brownsover Hall is a Victorian addition to the village.   It was developed from a much older farmhouse that had been on the estate of the Boughton family since 1542.   In that year Edward Boughton bought Newbold Grange, Lawford Hall and the village and fields of Brownsover.  

In 1836 John Ward-Boughton-Leigh added a park of some 30 acres to the western side of the farmhouse and developed new gardens.   So that the new gardens could be built in front of the house the turnpike road from Rugby to Lutterworth was diverted.

In 1857 the farmhouse itself was substantially re-built and redecorated “from designs drawn up by Sir Gilbert Scott”.