Remembrance Sunday falls on 8 November 2026. Rugby's parade and service run from about 10.50am at the War Memorial gates. Closures come in late October.

Remembrance Sunday 2026 falls on Sunday 8 November. Armistice Day is Wednesday 11 November.

Checked 5 September 2026. Rugby Borough Council has not yet published its 2026 remembrance page, which is normal for early September. On the last three years it has gone up in the final week of October: 30 October 2023, 24 October 2024 and 28 October 2025. Until then, the pattern below is what to plan around. It is taken from the council’s own 2025 page and is close to identical year on year, but the exact closure times do move by a few minutes, so check again in late October before you plan a journey.

The parade and service

The borough’s service and parade takes place at the War Memorial gates on Hillmorton Road, at the entrance to Whitehall Recreation Ground.

In 2025, representatives of around 20 contingents, including the Royal British Legion, the 250 Squadron of the Queen’s Gurkha Signals, the 4th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and ex-service organisations, gathered on Hillmorton Road between Whitehall Recreation Ground and Temple Street at 10.20am to be reviewed by the Mayor before marching to the gates. The Mayor and civic party walk to the gates from the rear of Lesley Souter House on Whitehall Road.

The service and parade ran from 10.50am to around 11.30am, with a two-minute silence. The Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire, the Mayor and representatives of the contingents laid wreaths at the gates, and members of the public were able to lay wreaths once the service had finished. The Salvation Army provides the music.

The council publishes a downloadable order of service alongside the page each year.

Road closures, as they ran in 2025

These are the 2025 closures. Treat them as the shape of the day rather than as 2026 fact, and check the council’s page when it appears.

Rugby town

  • 8am to 12 noon: Hillmorton Road between Temple Street and the Whitehall Road roundabout, both directions; the whole of Whitehall Road, both directions; and Hillmorton Road between Moultrie Road and the Whitehall Road roundabout. Access to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Centre permitted only until 10am.
  • 10am to 12 noon: the section of Hillmorton Road to Bruce Williams Way. Traffic leaving Bruce Williams Way is escorted to turn left onto Hillmorton Road, and no access to Bruce Williams Way is permitted. Emergency access is maintained throughout.
  • Diversions: Hillmorton Road to Lower Hillmorton Road via Temple Street and Caldecott Street, and Hillmorton Road to Clifton Road.

Bilton

  • 10am to 1pm: Bilton Road from its junction with Beech Drive to Main Street, with Main Street closed as far as the Magnet Lane and Lawford Lane junction. Diversion from Main Street along Alwyn Road, left into Longrood Road, right into Bawnmore Road, left down Overslade Lane into Lytham Road and back onto Bilton Road, and the reverse.

Hillmorton

  • 10am to 11.45am: High Street from its junction with Deerings Road to its junction with Fenwick Drive. Diversions from Deerings Road to Fenwick Drive and Watts Lane via Deerings Road, Wesley Road and Fenwick Drive, and via Deerings Road to School Street and Watts Lane.

Stretton-on-Dunsmore

  • 10.15am to 10.25am: from Brookside Medical Practice, half way along Brookside opposite Kaysbrook Drive, to All Saints Church on Church Hill. Ten minutes only, for the walk to the church.

Wolston

  • 10.45am to 11.30am: Main Street from its junction with School Street, including the slip road in front of the Baptist chapel, to the Main Street junction with Meadow Road. Diversion from Main Street to School Street via Meadow Road and Priory Road.

The one closure that has moved most between years is Bilton’s. It did not appear on the council’s 2024 list at all and returned in 2025, so do not assume last year’s list is complete either way.

Armistice Day, Wednesday 11 November

The council supports the Royal British Legion in the two-minute silence at 11am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Maroons are fired at Whitehall Recreation Ground on Hillmorton Road to mark the start and end of the silence, at 11am and 11.02am. Members of the public can attend.

If you live near the recreation ground, that is what the two loud bangs are.

Getting there and parking

The War Memorial gates are about a 15-minute walk from the town centre, and the closures mean the roads immediately around them are shut from 8am. Park in the town centre and walk rather than trying to get close.

Our parking in Rugby page has the tariffs and the Sunday rules for each council car park, several of which are free on Sundays, and roadworks and travel carries anything else closed that weekend.

What to expect next

The council’s 2026 page, with the confirmed order of service, the contingents, the named clergy and the final closure times, should appear in the last week of October 2026. We will update this page then.

Sources

  • Rugby Borough Council, “Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day in Rugby”, published 28 October 2025 (2025 timings, service detail, full road closure list, Armistice Day maroons)
  • Rugby Borough Council, the same page published 24 October 2024 and 30 October 2023 (used to establish the annual publication timing and the year-on-year variation in closures)
  • All checked 5 September 2026