Bilton Grange Boarding House

Bilton Grange, situated in Dunchurch near Rugby, Warwickshire, is an independent preparatory school. Centred around a Pugin-designed manor house and set in over 90 acres of woodland and open spaces, the school’s pupils range in age from three to 13.

Earle House, Bilton Grange’s new, state-of-the-art boarding house, opened in August 2025, with facilities including 80 beds, a social hub, dining hall and a unique indoor helter-skelter slide. The building has been lit throughout with Thorlux luminaires, including the Flexbar linear luminaire.

The elegant, slimline Flexbar has been designed to provide comfortable, low-glare illumination with optimised 160.5 LL/CW efficiencies. It has proven ideal for the communal spaces at Earle House, helping create a welcoming, comfortable living environment for pupils.

Lighting in the bedrooms uses slim, semi-recessed Dot luminaires, with recessed Flexblox downlighters in the communal TV lounge. The new Firefly emergency luminaire has been used throughout, combined with Lexi illuminated exit signs to provide completely reliable escape lighting in the event of a power failure. The building exterior is lit with wall-mounted Realta luminaires, and pathways are illuminated with Passway bollard luminaires and pole-top Starbeam Eco floodlights.

Lighting throughout the building is connected via the SmartScan wireless lighting management system, with wall-mounted SmartScan Scene Plate switches strategically placed to enable lighting configuration and level adjustment. SmartScan enables a wide range of performance reporting, occupancy monitoring, and lighting controls – including the ability to pre-programme ‘lights-out’ times in the pupils’ dormitories.