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ADVERTORIAL RUGBY BOROUGH WELCOME TO RUGBY and the Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum… As all Rugby fans know, the Warwickshire market town of Rugby is the birthplace of the game. As legend has it, in 1823 the Rugby schoolboy William Webb Ellis, “with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time”, caught the ball in his arms and ran forward with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game. What is less well-known however is that the first official rules of rugby football were published in Rugby by three Rugby School sixth formers in 1845, thereby creating the foundations of the sport we know today. These rules were the first formal set of published rules of any type of football in the world. They included much of the terminology still used in the sport in modern times, such as ‘try’, ‘knock on’ and ‘in touch’. If this weren’t enough, Rugby can also lay claim to being the home of the building with the longest continuous connection to the sport in the world. This is the building where another William – William Gilbert – began producing rugby footballs in 1842, beginning a tradition of rugby football manufacture on the site that is carried on by Webb Ellis Ltd. to this day. Though a boot and shoemaker, William Gilbert began producing rugby balls by covering pig’s bladders with leather for Rugby Schoolboys. He continued as a boot and shoemaker until he realised that he was producing more rugby balls than boots or shoes! Gilbert went on to become the town’s established rugby football maker and even exhibited in Queen Victoria’s famous Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. The building, which was once Gilberts Rugby Football Manufacturing Shop and Factory, still stands and is now the Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum. Established in the 1980s, the Museum houses a rich and fascinating collection of rugby memorabilia. Visitors can see a wealth of objects on display relating to the history of the game and development of the rugby ball, and can enjoy watching a traditional rugby ball being made. Stitcher John Batchelor has made rugby balls in the building since 1948 and still works in the Museum, demonstrating the dying 74 / CLASSIC SPORTS SERIES |