This page provides a summary of the information available on the two villages, their history, people and resources, and where this might be found. See also the page on the Warwick Records Centre for other County resources.
Parish Records. Parish records have been preserved and digitised from around the time the two parishes were both linked to St Peter’s in the 16th Century. These Parish Registers of Baptisms, Marriages / Banns and Burials from 1575 to points in the twentieth century are available at Rugby Library and the Warwick Records Centre on microfilm. See the online catalogue for Warwickshire Libraries or the online catalogue for Warwick Records Centre details of dates covered. Some can be viewed for free on the Family Search website, and others via the paid Genealogy Websites, which have transcriptions and search facilities, but do not have all of the most recent records. According to a 19th Century historian the King’s Newnham register is believed to have been “seriously mutilated” during a trial relating to the Leigh estates.
Local Press. Rugby Library is a good source of information in many areas of local history, with a set of back issues of the Rugby Advertiser held on Microfiche for public viewing. Newspapers can also be accessed in the British Newspaper Archive (BNA) via a paid subscription allowing a search facility. The BNA can also be accessed for free on the computers at Rugby Library. Note that largely consecutive issues of the Rugby Advertiser are only available up to 2004 in the BNA, although a few years in that range are still to be added. The Coventry Evening Telegraph covers 1891 to 1989, 1991-93 and 1996-99. The BNA is also included in the top-level subscription to the FindMyPast Genealogy Application. There is a competing service at Newspapers.com without access to the Rugby Advertiser, and rather more bias toward USA newspapers.
Village Newsletter. There is a set of village newsletters that is largely complete from 1980 to date, with credit to the various villagers who have kept their copies. There are also a few copies from earlier in the 20th Century, plus a significant number from the 1890s into the 20th Century. The current newsletters are here, with links to earlier versions.
Census Information. Census data has been published from 1841 through to 1921 in 10 year intervals. Census records can be viewed at the National Archives in Kew, or via a paid subscription to one of several Genealogy websites. There is free access to certain of these websites at both the Warwick Records Centre and at certain local libraries. The 1921 census is currently limited to the “Findmypast” and “Ancestry” paid websites rather than the competing “Genealogist” or “MyHeritage” paid sites. There is also the Free UK Genealogy site which offers free access to some Census, Parish Records and BMD data. Free access to “Ancestry” and “FindMypast” is available on the computers at Rugby Library.
There is an additional list, known as the National Register, created in 1939 during war preparations. It was also used for rationing and as the basis for NHS records, and was annotated in subsequent years with certain name changes..The version made available for viewing does not show living people. This register has also proved useful to help establish the initial hosting of London refugees in the two villages, as it was created after their arrival. This also explains some of the unexpected family names seen on that register.
The census data for the two villages has been transcribed into this archive, so it can be viewed via this link, or a family name can be researched using the search facility of this archive.
Electoral Roll information. The Family History Section in Rugby Library provides access to late twentieth century Electoral Roll information not available online. Since the early 21st century people have opted in or out of their information being published to the public-facing electoral roll, which can be viewed online via various paid services. The list maintained by St Peter’s Church from 1936 to 1960 is now held at the Warwick Records Centre.
Town and County Directories. Since the nineteenth century there have been a variety of directories published about the villages and their population. Some of these were produced at a county-level and focused on local trades – e.g. Kelly’s Directory – but others were published for the Rugby area with a more complete list of village households. These Rugby Almanacs were published for well over a century – firstly in the late 1850s by Tait and Sons (who also published the Rugby Advertiser). Versions of these Almanacks through to the 1960s are in the Rugby Library Family History Section. Other directories are available at the Warwick Records Centre, and many can be found on the paid Genealogy Websites, as well as the paid Midlands Historical Data website.
Maps. The best website for Maps is at the National Library of Scotland. Maps from the late nineteenth century through to today can be found via this link. There are different ways of navigating the maps there – the “Marker Pin” option is ideal for finding maps that cover a particular area, and the “Side By Side” viewer is excellent for comparing an old map with a current day view. The maps are really detailed, including the 25 inch to the mile maps from the start of the twentieth century, as well as some aerial photographs from the 1940s. For older maps, notably the early days of the Ordnance Survey in the mid-nineteenth century a good start point is the Charles Close Society website. This has an index to maps from the 1830s (hosted on the National Library of Australia website) and 1860s (hosted on the National Library of New Zealand website), as well as a sheetfinder which links to the National Library of Scotland site.
General Research. A very good starting point for research is the Warwickshire Timetrail – https://timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk/ – which highlights the resources available at various stages of research, and where they might be found. Similarly the National Archive website has many references to useful information as well as guides on what to look for. The most famous and arguably the most informative reference work for the area is the “Antiquities of Warwickshire” work written by William Dugdale, first published in 1656. It was updated and republished after his death with informative maps provided by Henry Beighton in 1729. Extracts from the Dugdale book have been used by historians over the ages, and are referenced here as appropriate. A full review of the Dugdale book is pending.
An excellent book called “Rugby Past and Present” was published in 1893 written by Rev W O Wait. The diagram of the village green is particularly informative. You can find the local extract for King’s Newnham here and for Church Lawford here.
A E Treen also wrote an excellent book called “Walking in and around Rugby” published in 1895 which can be found in Rugby Library. He also wrote a series of articles for the Rugby Advertiser, looking at several of the locations from the book, with even more detail. Fortunately King’s Newnham was one of those locations, and that text has been transcribed from an early 20th century issue of the newspaper here.
Local historian and archaeologist Matthew Holbeche Bloxam produced a series of writings about Rugby, Rugby School and the local area during the nineteenth century. They were published in a compendium in 1889 and although his section on the local villages is fairly brief, with more consideration for Little Lawford Hall. He did however write an in-depth article about the Rugby to Brandon road, with reference to Church Lawford and King’s Newnham as well as surrounding villages in a Rugby Advertiser article 150 years ago – discussed here. Other archaeological inputs have come from the Rugby Archaeological Society.
Matthew Holbeche Bloxham also published his insights into the two villages in the Rugby School Magazines during the 19th Century, providing a much more contemporary view of the events at Newnham Hall and St Laurence’s Church. Other information relating to the two villages can be found in the Rugby School Archive, and acknowledgement is made of the help provided by the administrators of this archive.
An earlier book, from the last decade of the 18th Century is Picturesque Views on the Warwickshire, or Upper Avon, written by Samuel Ireland, and the salient part of this book are discussed here. The book itself can be found online via Google Books or a transcribed version is also available via the https://fiftywordsforsnow.com/ebooks/avon/ link.
Information relating to the Second World War Period, a time when information supply was explicitly limited, has mostly come from recollections published in the following years. The various local history sources detailed in this section have been invaluable, as has the Village School Log for the period, held at the Warwick Records Centre. A further resource has been from published books, including: “Wartime Britain 1939-1945” by Juliet Gardiner, “Warwickshire Schools and the Second World War” by David Howe, “A Boy’s Own Story” by Brian Scoggins (which records a wartime evacuee’s experiences).
For a more modern look back at a niche part of the history of both villages it is worth checking a copy of Early Lime Works in the Rugby Area by John P H Frearson in Rugby Library.
Rugby Library is also a good source of pictorial information about Rugby and the surrounding villages. Notable books held in the Family History area include “Images of Rugby” compiled by the Rugby Advertiser, “Rugby Remembered” from the same source, “Rugby From Old Photographs” compiled by the Rugby Local History Research Group (2 Volumes), “Rugby As It Was” pictorial record and others held in the same section. Other resources include Electoral Rolls, Rugby Directories and many local books.
The Rugby Local History Research Group has also produced a series of booklets called “Aspects of the Past“. Although primarily focussed on Rugby, there is still subject matter of interest to the two villages. Several are available to borrow from the Library, and the majority are available to consult within the library. They can be bought from the shop area at the library (linked to Rugby Museum). The staff at both Rugby Museum and Rugby Library have also assisted in locating pertinent information, and are working on digitisation projects that will assist further in the future.
Rugby Library Local History Section also holds copies of an exceptionally well detailed set of documents produced by the Brandon, Bretford and Wolston History group. Given these are neighbouring parishes with a similar way of life to Church Lawford and King’s Newnham they give an excellent insight into how local people lived – along with a large number of pictures from the times, plus interviews with villagers they first started making 25 years ago, allowing them to capture accounts from first or second hand of life before the Great War . They largely cover the twentieth century in four volumes – and designated copies can be borrowed from Rugby Library.
Similarly Rugby Library also holds copies of some works by the Clifton-Upon-Dunsmore Local History Group. These works provide additional information on the Townsend Family in the area. There is also access to a book on Long Lawford History, written by Keith Judge which has information on both the Townsend and Crofts families.
Other Online Resources. There are many other online resources that can be located via a search engine, but the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/ is an excellent source for digital versions of “out of copyright” books. As a US-based site the copyright laws do differ somewhat to the UK ones.
Other Sources, Some of the above information, such as Parish Registers is also available to purchase from the “Midland Ancestors” shop, and you can also get tithe information and a data file listing the various memorials in St Peter’s Graveyard – see here.
Other useful information available in Rugby Library includes a history of the Home Guard in the area, the Victoria County history, and various directories and phone books. For more general Warwickshire information, the Warwick Records Office and Rugby Library are good starting points, and the Nuneaton Library also has a good county-wide set of information – including a book on the Dalton Family and their time in Church Lawford.
A similar sort of Village Archive used for reference has been the Crick Digital Archive – which also has a number of sections being considered for future upgrades.
There is also a Facebook Group “Past and Present Memories of Rugby and District” which can be searched for old stories and photographs relating to the two villages.
Various local history books can also be found at Hunts Bookshop or via their online service.
Information on specific families can also be useful, and is also of interest for those doing general Genealogical Research. For this archive there was significant input from the Dalton Family History Society, and there are other “One-name” Societies which can be found online.
For many years collaboration between genealogists has been a significant tool in family history research. Various online forums now exist, often hosted by one of the paid Genealogical websites. Unfortunately the quality of information often suffers when information is not cross-checked from these sources, and perhaps they are less useful than when the collaborative “GenesReunited” website was first established over 15 years ago – it is no longer marketed in the same way. Similarly there is impetus behind the “DNA Testing” facilities offered by these websites, hoping that this would provide shortcuts to historic research alongside the local validation of bloodlines. While it has its merits, there is much misinformation spread by reliance on poorly validated historic information and relationships.