Listed Building: FOSTON HALL AND ATTACHED ARCHWAY WITH WROUGHT IRON GATES (1205231)

Country house, now HM Detention Centre. 1863 by T C Hine in Jacobethan Style. Red brick with blue brick diaper work. Stone dressings. Plain tile roofs with stone coped gables and parapets and moulded kneelers. Prominent brick stacks with octagonal shafts in groups of two, three and four. Flush stone quoins and moulded stone bands. Two storeys with a three storey tower. Asymmetrical plan. Asymmetrical west elevation of eight bays. Off-centre tower with French Second Empire Style roof with ironwork cresting and weather vane. Flanked by triple stacks. Round-arched entrance with C19 panelled doors, flanked by tall narrow windows, all enclosed within a tripartite arrangement of Tuscan pilasters. Tripartite window above, and above again. Venetian type window above in a shaped gable. To the right, a single window and a small canted bay. Two similar plain sashes above. To the right again, an external stack rising to four shafts. To the left of the tower a narrow slit window and a larger canted bay. Two sashes above in gabled half dormers. Projecting gabled bay to left has large tripartite window to ground floor and Venetian type window above. Broad two bays to left with curved parapet, rising to a shaped gable. Ground floor has a sash, a round-arched porch entrance and two C20 windows. Two plain sashes above. All the windows have moulded stone surrounds. Symmetrical six bay south elevation. The centre part has four tall sashes to ground floor and four smaller sashes above. Projecting end bays have shaped gables and two storey canted bay windows. Attached to the north west corner is a mid C18 archway (from the previous house). Rusticated ashlar front, brick behind. Fluted capitals, and pediment. C18 wrought iron gates, probably not originally for this arch. The interior of the house has a Minton tiled entrance hall and a small marble bolection moulded fireplace with Delft Style tiles. Impressive staircase hall with stone staircase around three sides, arcaded beneath with round arches and naturalistic carving. Stone balustrade with a turned polished crinoidal limestone handrail. Main rooms have moulded cornices. Study has dentil cornice and early C18 Style chimney piece. Marble surround and panelled wood overmantle with broken pediment enclosing an urn and foliage. Grinling Gibbons Style ceiling and carved wooden chimney piece. The room at the south east corner has late C18 Style plaster panelling and white marble chimney piece. Listing NGR: SK1858031655