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Rugby is a market town in the county of Warwickshire in the West Midlands of England, on the River Avon. The town has a population of 62,790 (2002 census). The larger borough of Rugby has a population of 91,600 (2005 estimate).
Rugby is located 13 miles (21 km) east of Coventry, on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
The town is most famous as being the credited birthplace of rugby football. The town has a very famous Public School.
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One of the most notable landmarks around Rugby is the Rugby VLF transmitter, a large radio transmitting station located just to the east of the town. The station was opened in 1926 and has been used to transmit the MSF time signal. Several of the masts however were decommissioned and demolished by explosives in 2004, although a few including 4 of the biggest masts still remain.
At present a trial of transmission of the LORAN-C navigation system is being run at the station using the antenna described here.
It started in June 2005 and is due to be switched off in 2007.
According to a legend the game "Rugby" or "Rugby football" was played the first time during a football match in the town of Rugby. When the team of William Webb Ellis encountered a defeat in 1823, he gripped the ball with his hands and put it into the goal. Althogh there are genuine doubts about this story, the world champion cup of the Rugby-Union is called after Webb Ellis (Webb Ellis Cup).
Left: a statue of Rupert Brooke in Rugby where he was born August 3, 1887. He died 23rd of April 1915 in Lemnos, Ägäis. His poetry became known worldwide.
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