The museum is unstaffed and visits are self-led. However you can take a tour of the Museum with a Rugby Town Guide on a sporting heritage tour with a Rugby Weekend Pass. Within the tour you can stitch your own mini Rugby ball in the same buidling that William Gilbert made his first balls - a truly authentic Rugby experience.
Plan your visitThe museum is unstaffed and visits are self-led. However you can take a tour of the Museum with a Rugby Town Guide on a sporting heritage tour with a Rugby Weekend Pass. Within the tour you can stitch your own mini Rugby ball in the same buidling that William Gilbert made his first balls - a truly authentic Rugby experience.
Plan your visit
xLocated opposite Rugby School in Rugby town centre, the museum is housed in the original building where William and then James Gilbert, boot and shoe makers, moved premises from the High Street in 1842 to expand their rugby football manufacturing business.
The premises in St.Matthew’s Street have transformed from a Victorian workshop into a rugby museum – retaining all of its unique charm and character built up over the last 180 years.
Find out about the game’s beginnings including the exploits of Rugby schoolboy William Webb Ellis and his ‘fine disregard for the rules of the game’ to the establishment of the first formal set of rules at Rugby School.
The Origins
The Game
The Players
The Ball
The collection is displayed in four themed areas. These include the origins, the players, the game and the ball.
Visitors to the museum can learn about the traditional manufacture of the rugby ball from its origin as a pig’s bladder to its highly technical production today.
Discover how rugby grew into the popular international sport we know today.
Find out about the stories and history of our Objects of Rugby exhibit.
See more in the collection
The St Matthews Street museum in Rugby is famous for being the site of the first established rugby football workshop and the building with the longest continuous connection to the game in the world. The building is where 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 to this day.
Established in the 1980s, the museum houses a rich collection of international rugby memorabilia and tells the story of the game, the ball and the building. Its prestige attracts fans of rugby from all over the world.