Our parks and open spaces

Chestnut fields is in the Town Centre of Rugby on Park Road. It is adjacent to Caldecott Park and close to the Town Hall in Evreux Way. In the early 1900's the field was owned by Misses Harris. Once a year at St. Phillip's Church Fete the field would be filled with stalls selling, among other things, home grown produce, embroidery and sweets. The gates opened at 2pm and entrance cost 6d. Morris dancers performed and danced while the Scouts, Brownies and Guides would exhibit their handicraft skills. At 4pm everyone retired to the lawn of the Girl's Welcome Club (which was adjacent to the field) for strawberries and cream cakes and then at 8pm everyone went into the club for an evening's dancing. The 1.75 acre field was purchased by Rugby Borough Council in 1946 after the end of the Second World War for the sum of £3,250. In 1959 many of the ancient beech and chestnut trees in the field were felled and the field was divided in two to allow a road to be built linking Regent Place and Park Road. On Friday 21st October 2005 a sculpture was erected in Chestnut Field to the memory of Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, who designed many of the initial prototypes at the British Thompson-Houston works in Rugby.