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Webb Ellis Museum

Museum

What is recorded here

The Webb Ellis Museum occupies the Rugby workshop where William and James Gilbert developed their bootmaking business into rugby-ball manufacture from 1842. It preserves the longest continuous building connection with making balls for the game and explains how hand craft helped standardise play.

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The Webb Ellis Museum occupies the Rugby workshop where William and James Gilbert developed their bootmaking business into rugby-ball manufacture from 1842. It preserves the longest continuous building connection with making balls for the game and explains how hand craft helped standardise play.

Why it was built

The premises served a town-centre boot and shoe business before the Gilbert family expanded work there to meet demand for balls used at Rugby School.

People and work

William Gilbert and later his nephew James made leather balls by hand, using skills from bootmaking and responding to the developing needs of the game.

How it changed

The Gilberts moved the business here in 1842; production later moved elsewhere, and the old shop and workshop became a museum of rugby-ball making.

What survives

The narrow historic premises, workshop setting, tools, ball examples and trade records preserve the physical link between local craft and organised rugby.

Why it mattered

It is the game's longest continuous manufacturing site and shows how a small leather workshop helped turn an irregular school ball into a specialist product.

Sources for this account

Sources checked 16 August 2026.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n3683815621

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Photo credits
  • Ian Rob, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Andy F, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Robin Webster, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Stephen McKay, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Neil Theasby, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Roger Templeman, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • JThomas, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Mike Faherty, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
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