Fulbeck Hall

Fulbeck Hall is a country house comprising a fragment of an early 17th-century building, a main block of 1733, and additions dating from 1784, 1802, 1840, 1894, and 1934. The 1733 house was probably designed by George Portwood of Stamford and built for Sir Francis Fane, replacing an earlier house that burnt down in 1731. The porch, brought from Syston Park in 1934, was probably designed by L. Vulliamy in 1824.

The building is constructed of ashlar and gault brick with a hipped slate roof featuring lead dressings, four ridge stacks and two moulded wall stacks. The main east front shows three principal phases of development. The primary element is the 1733 main block of three storeys and five bays, with Doric pilasters on the upper part dividing the front in the rhythm of 2:1:2. The projecting single-storey 19th-century porch has a moulded cornice and centrepiece flanked by engaged Tuscan columns, containing an eight-panelled venetian door with fanlight, moulded surround and raised keyblock. To either side are single-light windows in plain surrounds with panelled aprons beneath. The first floor features a central window with a broken pediment flanked by Doric pilasters; above the window head is a roundel containing the date 1733. Paired windows with elaborate Gibbsian surrounds and heavy built-up keystones flank this central opening. The five second-floor windows are plainer, with moulded surrounds and built-up keystones. All upper-floor windows are glazing-bar sashes. The main block displays a plain third-floor sill band interrupted by giant orders, a heavily moulded cornice, and a deep plain parapet.

To the right is an apsidal-ended block of two widely spaced bays. The lower two storeys were built in 1784, with the topmost storey added in 1802. Fenestration is concentrated at the right-hand end; the east front shows only one ground-floor window to the right, with two windows each on the upper floors. All windows are glazing-bar sashes; the topmost ones have plain surrounds only.

At the rear is a 17th-century service block with two mullioned windows, a survival from the house that burnt down in 1731.

Internally, the hall passage and dog-leg staircase date from 1733 and feature deeply carved bolection panelling with openings flanked by Doric pilasters, lit by a large semicircular-headed window in the back wall. The staircase balustrade is particularly fine, with pillars at the corners and acanthus scrolls at the ends of the treads. The dining room, added in 1784, retains a fine six-panelled door with fluted overdoor and cornice, a white marble fireplace with original scagliola work, and a well-restored frieze of arabesques and palmettes. The drawing room was remodelled circa 1840 and contains a fireplace of that date. The former dining room is now the library, with panelling of 1894 which was extended in 1909. Considerable restoration was required following the Army's occupation of the house during the Second World War, apart from the addition of the front porch in 1934.