Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Rudyard is a lakeside resort village in the county of Staffordshire, England, west of Leek, Staffordshire and on the shore of Rudyard Lake. The lake was built in 1831 by the engineer John Rennie to provide water for the Caldon Canal. The western shore is part of the Staffordshire Way, a long distance footpath. The lakeside resort developed after the construction of the North Staffordshire Railway in 1845. On one particular day in 1877, more than 20,000 people came to watch Captain Webb swim the reservoir - the first man to swim the English Channel. The parents of Rudyard Kipling met at Rudyard and named their son after the village. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.