From the Rugby Advertiser archives - February 27, 2020 edition

Our 1920 archive above talks about the Eagle Hotel, but doesnt say where it was - so heres a lovely old postcard which shows it was in Market Place, next to what is now the entrance to the shopping centre,

February 27 , 1920

Many of the old landmarks in Rugby are rapidly vanishing, and now the Eagle, which flourished for several centuries as the principal hostlerie in the town and in the Tom Brown’s day was known as the Spread Eagle, is in the hands of the builders, and is undergoing yet another metamorphosis.

This time it is to be converted into a fish shop for Mac Fisheries Ltd, with which Lord Leverhulme is connected, a greengrocer’s shop and four flats. During the course of the alterations, a solid oak timber frame has been disclosed with the letters MDVIII, representing the date of the original building 1598. (See picture)

February 27 , 1970

Platform tickets doubled in price last month, very quietly, without much fuss - and Rugby people do not like it one bit. No one catching or seeing off the 9.54 Inter-City train to Euston on Wednesday could understand why it should cost a tanner to stand on a square foot of concrete. A family of five seeing grandma and grandpa off after a weekend would be stung for half a crown, instead of the 1s 3d it would have cost three weeks ago.

British Rail could give no concrete reason for the 100 per cent increase. They just said: “This is a facility and we feel we can charge sixpence for it. We are charged with making money and this is one way of doing it.”

February 23 , 1995

The crowds came out to welcome Coronation Street star Barbara Knox to Rugby on Monday. The actress who plays Rita Sullivan was in town to officially open the Clock Towers shopping centre.

She was led by the Delta New Orleans Brass Band and dancers through the streets of the town in a horse-drawn coach before cutting the ribbon at the Market Mall entrance.