Toft, Warwickshire

Dunchurch-Winton Hall was a boarding and day Preparatory School for boys and girls from 31⁄2 to 131⁄2 years. Pupils joined the Main School at 71⁄2 while from 31⁄2 to 71⁄2 they attended the Pre-Preparatory Department which was housed separately in the grounds. Originally built as a hunting lodge for the Duke of Buccleuch in 1840, the School was an amalgamation in 1940 of Dunchurch Hall founded in 1868 and Winton House, founded in 1863 by the botanist and author Charles Alexander Johns. Dunchurch Hall had been on the site since 1883 and is now an English Courtyard development with the original Hall retained as part of the development. The school prepared pupils for entry to Public Schools as well as for the 12+ entry examination to local state schools. The school stood in 25 acres (10 ha) of gardens and playing fields in the Warwickshire village of Dunchurch. The school's motto was “Carpe Diem”. Dunchurch-Winton Hall closed on 9 July 1993 and was subsequently sold to English Courtyard who used land from part of the playing fields to build retirement cottages and apartments.There are memorials to the former pupils of Dunchurch Winton Hall School who fell during the First and Second World Wars in St Peter's Church, Dunchurch.

Dunchurch is a large village and civil parish on the south-western outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southwest of central Rugby. The civil parish, which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, had a population of 4,123 at the 2021 Census, a significant increase from 2,938 at the 2011 Census.

Thurlaston is a village and civil parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 352, increasing to 368 at the 2011 census, and again to 379 at the 2021 census.

Bilton Grange is a preparatory school located in Dunchurch, near Rugby, Warwickshire. The present headmaster is Gareth Jones. The mansion which forms the main school was built in 1846 attached to an existing farmhouse and was a private family home. It was designed by the eminent designer and architect Augustus Welby Pugin for Captain Washington Hibbert, and is a Grade II* listed building. The first pupils were brought to the house by The Reverend Walter Earle in 1887. The brewhouse was converted into the school chapel in 1889 and classrooms were added in 1892. The school formally amalgamated with the neighboroughing Homefield Girls' School, with which it had long had a connection, in 1992 with Bilton Grange becoming co-educational and the Homefield School building becoming the Pre-Prep department for children aged 4 to 8. Bilton Grange has always been a boarding school but in more recent times has accommodated an increasing number of day children, many of whom take advantage of the opportunity to flexi board and become weekly or full boarders during their time at Bilton Grange. The school enjoys an estate of over 90 acres including several areas of woodland and a 9-hole golf course laid out in 1998. The designed the library and a staircase leading to the boarding house. The four Sections (Bilton's name for houses) are Cheadle, Westminster, Alton and Oxburgh. Bilton Grange is commonly recognised as the feeder to Rugby School although over half of each leaving yeargroup of 13-year-olds go on to other public schools such as Uppingham School, Eton College and Oundle School. In September 2019 the school announced that it was merging with Rugby School as one charity, but remaining a separate, autonomous school, with children still able to progress to a range of public schools.

Rains Brook is a 11.8-kilometre-long (7.3 mi) tributary of the River Leam.Formed by a series of small headwater streams midway between Barby and Kilsby in Northamptonshire, it then flows west in a valley south of Rugby on the border between Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. It then runs south-west to where it joins the River Leam, between Kites Hardwick and Woolscott.

Rugby High School is a selective grammar school situated in the Bilton area of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The school motto is “She Sets Heights In Her Heart”. It takes girls aged 11–18 and boys 16–18. To attend this school, all students must have scored highly in the Eleven plus exam. It is the only state school in Warwickshire to offer Latin as a subject. In January 2023, it was rated "Good" by Ofsted.

Cawston is a civil parish and suburban village close to the south west of Rugby, on the A4071 (which is in turn just one mile from the M45). The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,234. For hundreds of years the village was basically a hamlet and the two settlements remained separate despite Rugby's continued growth. However, in 2003-04 a new housing development, Cawston Grange, was completed all but connecting the two settlements. Cawston Grange Primary School was built at the same time to educate children in the area aged 4–11 and there is a nursery for pre-school children, as well as a public house and shops. One of the most significant older buildings in the village is Cawston House. It was built in 1545 by Edward Boughton. The house has been in the hands of several notable titled families and was also used as a convalescent home for troops from Belgium in World War I, a girls' school between 1938 and 1958, and a research and development unit for an engineering company. The house was greatly altered in 1907 and remains the same externally to this day. In 2004 the house was bought by a developer and sub-divided to make a retirement village. The old Rugby to Leamington railway line ran through the old village (this closure predates the Beeching cuts, but part was still used as a freight line to Rugby Cement works at Long Itchington) and its path can still be walked along. The railway bridge over the A4071 has in recent years gained minor fame for the 'witty' slogans written on it. Examples of such (referring to a different village near Rugby) are "Home rule for Crick" and "Fly Crick air". In August 2007 construction of the Rugby Western Relief Road started just west of the village, a project which was completed in 2010.

Kites Hardwick is a hamlet in east Warwickshire, England, in the Leam Valley ward of Rugby Borough and in the civil parish of Leamington Hastings The village straddles the A426 Rugby to Southam road two miles (3 km) south of Dunchurch. It lies in the valley of the River Leam which passes under the A426 at Thurlaston Bridge, just north of Kites Hardwick. This spot was the location of frequent flooding of the road until in 2001 the Environment Agency constructed a gauging station immediately west of the bridge with associated works to ease the flow of the river.Kites Hardwick takes the second part of its name from the Herdewyk family (who are mentioned in the Domesday Book and throughout the late Middle Ages): there are numerous references to the family (also spelled Herdwych and Herdewic) in medieval records from the midlands of England. It is less clear where the first part of the village's name originates but it may refer to red kites, a bird of prey common in England until the 19th century. Kites Hardwick was a manor in its own right, separate from the manor of Leamington Hastings. The first mention of the manor is in 1236, when Robert Hastang (whose family gives the name to Leamington Hastings) went to law against William de Herdewic regarding customs and services owed. By the 16th century, the manor was known as Hardwick Grimbald.Leamington Hastings parish is entirely rural farming and Kites Hardwick remains an agricultural settlement. According to L. F. Salzman's History of the County of Warwick an early-17th-century document states: The glebe land of Ougham and Westcroft (in Kites Hardwick) was capable of supporting 10 milch cows besides 'rearers' and two or three hundred sheep, and also contained 4 yard land of corn and hay Today, there is a mix of livestock (mostly sheep) and arable farming. However, Salzman records that much of the arable land had once been pasture; this seems borne out as late as 1853 in a reference by RS Surtees to: ... the wide-stretching grazing grounds of Southam and Dunchurch.A ewe from the Manor Farm flock of Southdown sheep won Reserve Supreme Champion for Kites Hardwick farmer John Goode at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh in 2000. Manor Farm is on the east side of the A426 road and is architecturally the most notable of the farms in the village. The house is a three-storey early Georgian red brick house with stone dressings and has been Grade II listed since December 1951. Kites Hardwick is served by a bus service running between Rugby and Leamington Spa although most residents have cars. The speed limit through the village was 60 mph but was recently reduced to 50 mph although, unusually, the police objected to the lowering of the limit. A golf driving range was constructed on agricultural land just north of the village in 1992. It now operates as Leam Valley Golf Centre and provides a 14-bay range which is floodlit at night, a nine-hole golf course and putting greens.Draycote Water lies north of the village. It is operated by Severn Trent Water as a domestic water storage reservoir. It was opened in 1970 and holds up to 5,000,000,000 imperial gallons (22,700,000 m3) of water. The reservoir sits beside and above the River Leam and water is pumped up from the river during the winter. Draycote supplies nearby Rugby by pipe and can also feed water back into the River Leam to supply the Leamington Spa area. There is a visitor centre, a sailing club and the reservoir is popular with walkers, birdwatchers and anglers. Kites Hardwick was once more of village status, with 3 pubs. They drank beer because of the lack of clean water. It is said that the people of Kites Hardwick were very drunk. The people who lived there were wiped out by the Black Death (the plague) in the 15th century. Kites Hardwick is also known as Kytes Hardwick.

Bilton is a suburb of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, located about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of Rugby town centre. It is also a ward of the Borough of Rugby, which at the 2021 Census had a population of 6,544. It comprises much of the western half of the town. Historically a village in its own right, Bilton was incorporated into Rugby in 1932.

Crescent School is a Private preparatory coeducational day School for pupils aged 3 – 11. It is located in the Bilton area of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It was informally started in 1946, and founded in 1948 as a school for the children of Rugby School masters. It was housed in Rugby School buildings. Having opened its doors to children living in Rugby and the surrounding district, it out–grew its premises and, in 1988, purchased a purpose-built school in Bilton, a leafy, residential suburb approximately 2 miles south of Rugby town centre. There are currently 167 pupils on role including 19 children aged 3–4 in the very successful Pathfinders Nursery . Since 2017, the school has been a part of the Princethorpe Foundation, alongside secondary school Princethorpe College, fellow primary school Crackley Hall and nursery Little Crackers. The headmaster, Joe Thackway is a member of Independent Association of Preparatory Schools and the school is an accredited member of Independent Schools Council, having undergone Independent Schools Inspectorate and Ofsted inspections.

Bilton Hall is a 17th-century mansion house in the Bilton area of Rugby, Warwickshire which has been converted into residential apartments. It is a Grade I listed building. It was once the home of the poet and essayist Joseph Addison and of the sporting writer Charles James Apperley.

Bilton School (formerly Herbert Kay and Westlands School, and most recently Bilton High School) is a major secondary school with academy status for pupils aged 11–18 situated within the village of Bilton in Rugby, Warwickshire. There were 1,020 students on roll in the 2015-2016 school year, with 69 staff and 17 teaching assistants.In March 2016, the school was placed in special measures after an Ofsted inspection found it to be inadequate in every area except its sixth form, which followed a serious decline in examination results over the previous two years.