Overstone Hall: Charity to fight fire-hit stately home's demolition

A charity said it would fight plans to demolish a former stately home that has been ravaged by fire, saying it could be "the next big visitor attraction".

Overstone Hall, near Northampton, has been derelict since a blaze in 2001 and it suffered another fire last month.

Owner Barry Howard Homes has submitted an application for its demolition.

The Victorian Society said the plan showed a "lack of imagination", but the developer spoke of the building's "perilous condition".

Conservation advisor Guy Newton said the charity, which campaigns to preserve Victorian and Edwardian heritage, would submit a formal objection to the plans, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

In the planning application for demolition submitted to West Northamptonshire Council, the developer said it had "taken all reasonable action to arrest the decline of the remaining parts" of the hall.

It said the building was "in a derelict and perilous condition" and it was unviable to restore it.

However, Mr Newton said the house needed to be retained, even if it was never fully restored.

"England's landscape is littered with ruins. Overstone Hall is now part of that conversation. Overstone Hall could be the next big visitor attraction," Mr Newton said.

He suggested it could be similar to the National Trust's Clandon Park in Surrey, which was hit by a huge fire in 2015 but is being restored in part for visitors.

In 2019, plans by the developer to turn Overstone Hall into 52 homes was rejected, but permission for its restoration was granted.

Originally commissioned by Lady Overstone in 1860, she died before the hall was finished. Her husband was said to have hated all 119 rooms.

It went on to become a school, then the headquarters of a Pentecostal church, but in more recent times it has been badly damaged by fire, the weather and vandalism.

Northamptonshire Police said officers were still investigating the blaze last month and no-one had been arrested.

West Northamptonshire Council has yet to make a decision on the application.

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