Tom Brown's School Days - References To Actual Geography

References To Actual Geography

The geography of Rugby has changed greatly since the period in which the book was set. Rugby has expanded enormously, industrialising in the late 19th century and later. For example, most of the named pools along the River Avon that the boys used for authorized swimming were obliterated when the British Thomson-Houston factory was built and the Avon through the new industrial area was straightened and deepened to prevent floods. The countryside where Tom Brown's adventures in the Avon river valley happened, is now industrial area and terrace housing on the north slope of Rugby Hill and the flat land at its foot.

In the book, Tom's first year at the school mentions no transport to Rugby except stagecoach, but the end part of Tom's last year mentions "the train". The London and Birmingham Railway was built through Rugby while he was at the school but none of his adventures mention the railway or its working, or the large rowdy noisy navvy-camp which would have been in the area while the railway was being built.

County boundaries have been changed so that most of the Vale of White Horse is now in Oxfordshire, not Berkshire as the author says several times.