Porter’s Lodge. ([Page 86.])
CHAPTER XII.
SCHOOL HOUSES, &c.
For over two hundred years Repton School was held in the Priory, the “School Master” lodged at its north end, and the “Usher” at its south. Between “the lodgings” was the school-room, known to many generations of Reptonians as the “big school.” A smaller room was built on to this, with a door of communication between them, this room used to be divided into two, the upper end was the Headmaster’s study, and the lower end the School library.
During the eighteenth century a large number of boys, who came from a distance, used “to table,” that is lodge, in the village.
On January 8th, of the year 1728, Mary Thacker died, leaving Repton Hall to Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., of Foremark. It is supposed that the School acquired the Hall, as a residence for the Headmaster, about this time.
Repton Hall, originally an isolated brick tower, two storeys high, with hexagonal turrets in the upper storey, was built by Prior Overton during the reign of Henry VIth (1422-1461), and was called Prior Overton’s Lodge, but as the Prior, according to the Statutes, was obliged to reside in the Priory itself, moreover the Prior’s chamber is named in the Inventory (p. 58), “there can be little doubt,” as Mr. St John Hope writes (Vol. VI., Derbyshire Archæological Journal, p. 96), “the building was really the infirmitorium, or abode of sick and infirm monks.” Like all the other ancient buildings in Repton, additions and restorations have quite changed it. The Thackers added to it when they obtained possession in 1539, and built its southern side during the reign of William and Mary. The only unaltered part is the brick tower, except its top which used to be castellated, (see picture in Bigsby’s Hist., Plate 1.)
The lower storey of it, now the kitchen, has a fine oak ceiling divided into nine square compartments by oak beams, at the intersections there are four carved bosses bearing (1) a name device, or rebus of Prior Overton a tun or cask, encircled by the letter O, formed by a vine branch with leaves and grapes, (2) a capital T ornamented with leaves, (3) an S similarly ornamented, (4) a sheep encircled like No. 1. The letters T and S are supposed to be the initials of former priors.
“The lofty staircase of majestic oak, dim-lighted by an ancient window, filled with narrow panes of deep-discoloured glass,” is now brightened with a stained glass window, which was presented and placed in the School Library by Dr. Sleath on his retirement from the headmastership in 1830. It contains armorial bearings of the Founder, and three Hereditary Governors of Repton School, the Earls of Huntingdon, and Chesterfield, and Sir John Gerard.