Dunchurch, Tudor Cafe c.1955

Photo ref: D92001

More about this scene

Until the 1880s, Dunchurch was of far greater significance than Rugby itself. This came about because, between 1707 and 1723, the installation of turnpikes on local roads led to such an improvement in their condition that Dunchurch Road became a major thoroughfare. Dunchurch itself became an important staging post on the London to Holyhead and Oxford to Leicester roads. The advent of the railways, however, brought an end both to the turnpike trusts and to Dunchurch's supremacy. On the left of D92001, below, we can glimpse the 14th-century church of St Peter with its 15th-century tower and modern stained glass. Built of red sandstone, it is in the Perpendicular style on Saxon foundations. The Vicarage (not visible) is an attractive chequered brick Georgian house. In The Square in front of the church there is a row of almshouses founded in 1693 by Thomas Newcombe, printer to Charles II, James II and William III. These were rebuilt in 1818. In front of the almshouses in The Square stands a statue to Lord John Douglas Montague Scott (1809-1860). Since the 1970s it has become a tradition to dress up this statue as a cartoon or TV character on New Year's Eve. Overlooking The Square is Guy Fawkes House, a 16th-century building with vertical half-timbering and a jettied upper floor, formerly the Lion Inn. On 6 November 1605, forty Catholic gentlemen met here to dine while they awaited news of the Gunpowder Plot. When they learned of its failure, they fled, but were later captured and executed.