Wedding Photographer Great Fosters — Elizabethan Surrey Mansion, the Moat and the Tithe Barn
Great Fosters near Egham is one of England’s most architecturally valuable and most photographically distinctive Elizabethan manor house wedding venues — a Grade I listed mansion of c.1550 whose red-brick Tudor facade, ornamental moat, the formal gardens with their topiary spirals and the brick tithe barn of the same date together constitute an ensemble of Elizabethan domestic architecture of exceptional survival and quality. For Great Fosters wedding photography, the house’s Tudor chimneystack groups, the formal knot garden beyond the moat, the great kitchen garden’s brick walls and the Surrey parkland surrounding the estate provide a portrait landscape of consistent Elizabethan character that is difficult to match at any comparable date range within the Home Counties.
The Tudor Facade, the Moat and the Formal Gardens
Great Fosters’ south front — the symmetrical Elizabethan facade with its diaper-pattern brick, the tall chimneystack clusters and the original mullioned windows looking south across the moat — provides a portrait backdrop of Elizabethan Tudor domestic architecture of the highest possible quality in the Surrey landscape. The ornamental moat encircling the formal garden on the north side provides waterside portrait settings with the Tudor facade reflected in still water: the moat’s bridge approach, the waterside planting and the reflection of the brick towers create composed Tudor portrait backgrounds of considerable romantic quality. The formal knot garden within the moat’s enclosure, with its Elizabethan topiary spirals in box and yew, provides an enclosed garden portrait space of rare formal Elizabethan character.
The Tithe Barn, Surrey Parkland and Virginia Water
The Great Fosters tithe barn — the contemporary brick and timber barn of the same Elizabethan date as the house, converted as a reception space — provides a ceremony and reception ground of considerable architectural character: the barn’s original timber frame, the warm brick walls and the converted interior space provide portrait settings of industrial heritage character adjacent to the formal Tudor house. The Surrey parkland surrounding Great Fosters — within the boundaries of Runnymede to the north and Virginia Water’s ornamental lake to the east — extends the portrait landscape to include Windsor Great Park’s Long Walk and the Runnymede Thames meadows within short drive for golden-hour sessions.