Great Fosters is a 16th-century mansion which originally lay within

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for many ...

and is still adjacent to the town of

Egham Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, close to

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

and the M25 London orbital

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

. It has been

listed Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

since July 1951, and its gardens and parkland have been Grade II* listed on the

Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

since July 1988. The grounds are also home to a 17th-century Grade II listed barn which was reconstructed on the site from its original home in a field in Malden, Surrey. The Grade II listed former stables date from the 16th century and are now used as a conference centre. The formal gardens of Great Fosters were laid out in 1918 by W. H. Romaine-Walker in partnership with G. H. Jenkins, the pair also extended the house.

History

Great Fosters was the London seat of Sir John Dodderidge (1555–1628), a judge of the King's Bench and formerly Solicitor General to

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

. He had been brought up in

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

, in North Devon, and purchased the estate of Bremridge near

South Molton South Molton is a town in Devon, England. It is part of the North Devon local government district. The town is on the River Mole. According to the 2001 census the civil parish of South Molton had a population of 4,093, increasing to 5,108 at the ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, as his country estate. His epitaph on his monument in

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 140 ...

states ''"He departed this lyfe at Forsters nere Egha(m) in Surrey"''. Sir Robert Foster owned the house in 1639. When he died in 1663 he left the house to his son, Sir Thomas Foster. Great Fosters remained in the family following his death in 1685 when it passed to his daughters. In 1715, Sir Charles Orbey resided here, and it was not until 1787 that one of Sir Thomas’ great grandsons sold the property to a Mr Wyatt for £700. In 1818 Great Fosters was sold to Dr George Frederick Furnivall (father of

Frederick Furnivall Frederick James Furnivall (4 February 1825 – 2 July 1910) was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the ''New English Dictionary''. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pion ...

), Sir John Chapman (one of the 300 founder members of the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...

) and another partner, who operated it as a

lunatic asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...

. Chapman was one of the "modern thinkers" who believed mental illness was not solely related to physical illness, and Furnivall was described in local documentation as "Doctor to the Poor" in Windsor. Although not confirmed by

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

records, it is said that

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

was treated at Great Fosters towards the end of his life. Early in the 20th century, Great Fosters was owned by Baroness Halkett,

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...

's lady in waiting. Later it passed to the

Earl of Dudley Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford (now the West Midlands), is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family. History Dudley was first used for a p ...

and then to the Hon. Gerald Montague. The estate was purchased by

Harold Sutcliffe Sir Harold Sutcliffe (11 December 1897 – 20 January 1958) was a British Conservative Party politician and businessman. Born in Yorkshire, he was educated at Harrow and then Oriel College, Oxford. During the First World War, in which he was ...

in 1931 and owned by the Sutcliffe family until late 2018 when it was purchased by the current owners, Alexander Hotels. The building is now a 4-star hotel.

The house

The gardens at Great Fosters, Egham (1497512710)

In about 1550, the original house was built as a symmetrical U-shaped

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

homestead. It is probable that it was extended in the early 17th century because there is slightly larger

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

work in the

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

. It was at this time the initial tall

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

s were built. However, these were removed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

after a bomb blast. They have been replaced by replicas. A dominant feature of the house is the windows, all of which have stone

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s and transoms with leaded lights. The Italian Suite - Great Fosters (6042025493)

In popular culture

The front of the house was used in the opening title sequence of the 1950s TV comedy series ''

Whack-O! ''Whack-O!'' is a British sitcom TV series starring Jimmy Edwards, written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and broadcast from 1956 to 1960 and 1971 to 1972. The series (in black and white) ran on the BBC from 1956 to 1960 and (in colour) from 19 ...

'' set at a minor public school. It was also used in the 1958

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...

film about the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

'', '' A Night to Remember''.

Visit of Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I’s 1598 crest adorns the entryway of Great Fosters and likely marks the year when the queen visited. In the summer, she and her court toured the English countryside for months at a time in journeys called “progresses.” The court left London to escape the disease and heat that settled over the city in the summer. But Elizabeth I also reinforced her power. Her showy retinue and public fêtes made her reign personal even for peasants who lived far from London. And as she visited favored members of the nobility, she strengthened alliances and built bonds of mutual indebtedness.

References

External links

*{{Official, https://www.alexanderhotels.co.uk/great-fosters/
Aerial viewVideo tourA Royal Visit at Great Fosters
Country houses in Surrey Grade I listed buildings in Surrey Grade I listed houses Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Surrey Grade II listed buildings in Surrey Hotels in Surrey Houses completed in the 16th century Borough of Runnymede Elizabethan architecture Country house hotels