Brownsover

Infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Brownsover
latitude= 52.39
longitude= -1.24
shire_district= Rugby
shire_county= Warwickshire
region= West Midlands
constituency_westminster= Rugby and Kenilworth
post_town= RUGBY
postcode_district = CV21
postcode_area= CV
dial_code= 01788
os_grid_reference= SP515775

Brownsover is a small village about 1½ miles north of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Since 1960, it has been further absorbed by the suburban expansion of Rugby.

'Old' Brownsover

The original hamlet of Brownsover still exists, to the west of A426 "Leicester Road", where Brownsover Hall is situated. This country house was rebuilt in the Victorian era by the Ward-Boughton-Leigh family, county landowners who still today own land in the area and who donated to Rugby School the ground where William Webb Ellis first ran with a football. Brownsover is also where Frank Whittle developed the jet engine in the 1930s. The hall has now become a large hotel and conference centre. The hamlet also contains an old house which is where it is believed Lawrence Sheriff (c1510-1567), the founder of Rugby School, was born.

The old (C of E) parish church of St. Michael & All Angels was founded in the 12th century as a chapel of ease, and was almost entirely rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1876 for Allesley Boughton-Leigh. The church has an interesting collection of English and foreign carved woodwork, including a splendid organ case, made in 1660 for St John's College, Cambridge. There is one armorial monumental inscription in the floor of the church, the grave of John Howkins (1579-1678), a wealthy lawyer and great-nephew of the above-mentioned 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 The church is now closed to regular use and has been replaced by a modern place of worship - Christchurch in Helvellyn Way, new Brownsover.

'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 area referred to as 'Strawberry Fields', in the 1990s, with two other projects nearing completion. 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, Methodists and Baptists. Brownsover has a number of green spaces as well as the canal.

Trivia

Brownsover is mentioned in Tom Brown's Schooldays.

External links

* [http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Warwickshire/Rugby/Brownsover_Hall_Hotel Brownsover Hall Hotel at Pictures Of England]
* [http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/HTML_sample/leigh_(gb_baronetcy_1773_-_1870).htm Cracroft's Peerage - Leigh, Barts, of Brownsover]