Foremarke Hall - The Building

The Building

It is known that there was a building on this site in 1712 but it can be assumed that it may have already been there some time as Sir Francys Burdett built the nearby Saint Saviours Church in 1662 and the hall was large and convenient with a hearth tax of 24 hearths.

The present building was built in 1759 to 1761; and is of Georgian and Palladian architectural style with animposing portico, cursive and round domes, chamber, pillars and a magnificent south front. A double spiral staircase leads up to the 1st floor- to the rectangular balcony and pillared front entrance of the Hall and into the approximately 1,000 square feet (93 m2) main hall/living area of the building which consists of two large imposing fireplaces and a glass chandelier. The entrance is decorated with a tall black wooden double-door, accompanied by equally impressive checker-framed windows. There is an imposing back entrance on the far side of the main hall with identical doors and windows, and which leads to a decorated ornamental patio-courtyard. Another balcony sits outside the back entrance but is connected to imposing angular staircases on either side with right-angled twists; instead of the spiral ones found on the front face. All the staircases and balconies are fenced with stylised pillar columns. There is a doorway situated on ground level centred in between the imposing staircases, beneath both the front and rear entrances. At the front main entrance, the doorway is sealed by a black wooden door and leads slightly down into a storage room; which nowadays also houses the water boiler. The doorway at the rear entrance leads into a short tunnel and into the corridor of the ground floor; which is now a boarding house. In addition, an Annex was built as a Guesthouse and to house the Lord's retinue with a corridor at ground floor linking the two buildings.

The Hall is four-storey high and consists of a large hall on the 2nd floor with an infamous portrait of Burdett whose eyes foremarke teachers and students claim 'seem to be staring directly at them in whatever angle'. After the Manor house was rendered part of Repton Prep School a store room was built halfway in between the 1st and 2nd floor above the Head Master's offices to house instruments.

On the 2nd floor, in between the Library and the Main Hall, the 3rd floor is hollowed to give a large two-storey space in which large portrait-paintings of Sir Francis 5th Bart.and his wife Sophia,Lady Burdett as well as his father, Francis Burdett, are hung. A glamorous L-shape velvet-carpeted staircase next to the library door leads up to the 3rd floor household which is lined with Georgian carved wood-fencings. A prestigious chandelier hangs from the roof of the two-storey-area. Steps on the 2nd floor lead down to the 1st floor- Francis boarding house.