LOOKING BACK - May 26 edition

I like this old picture of Sheep Street, with its cobble stones and the distinctive tower of Rugby School Chapel in the distance. Notice how everyone has stopped to look at the photographer - unless of course they were purposely positioned around the scene! The only sign visible says ‘JB Smith Baker’. You might also spot the doors high up in the walls of two of the buildings towards the left of the picture and the pulley system. I’m assuming this must have been to do with grain and deliveries. It’s not easy to visualise exactly where it is, but I think the three-story building on the right used to be Heaphy’s menswear . On the back of the picture in our files, someone has written ‘1876 - entrance to the Town Hall can be seen just to the left of the horse and cart’.

When we printed this second picture in our ‘Images of Rugby’ book 20 years ago the caption says it’s a view from 1904. So it seems quite a lot had changed in Sheep Street in the years between these two photographs being taken. Either that or I haven’t quite got the dates or location right! The chimneys on the ‘Heaphys’ building do seem to match up though.