Overstone Hall: Why campaigners want to save a stately home near Northampton

When it was built in the early 1860s, the first owners of Overstone Hall described it as "an utter failure". But historians say the building was, in fact, ahead of its time. Two devastating fires have also failed to take it down. What is the latest on the former stately home?

Overstone Hall is an imposing Grade II listed stately home on the edge of Northampton.

Two major fires - in 2001 and in March this year - have reduced its original splendour to a charred, roofless shell.

Campaigners are now desperate to save the building, believing it has the potential to be a huge visitor attraction.

Historians fear this stately ruin, which was seen as "cutting edge" when it was built, will be reduced to rubble - and forgotten.

But in an application to demolish it, the developer said it had "taken all reasonable action to arrest the decline of the remaining parts" of the hall.

Overstone Manor was built in the early 1860s for Lord and Lady Overstone, but he apparently hated it and refused to live there, while his wife died before it was completed.

In a letter to a friend, Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone, wrote: "The new house, I regret to say, is the cause of unmitigated disappointment and vexation.

"It is an utter failure."

It was designed by the architect William Milford Teulon in the French Renaissance style and had a total of 119 rooms.

Alex Howes, from Northampton Civic Society, said: "It was one of the first buildings in Britain, if not the world, to have cavity wall insulation, butler's lifts, central heating and electric lights.

"It was cutting edge, it represents when Britain was a world leader in architecture, engineering and technology."

Lord Overstone's daughter Harriet (later Lady Wantage) inherited the estate in 1883, and used to stay there with her husband during the hunting season.

When he died, it was leased to several people, including the Australian shipping magnate Malcolm McEacharn, who entertained his guests in the lavish style expected of an English house in the "Jeeves and Wooster" era.

Overstone Hall then became a girl's boarding school in the 1920s, and Trudy Box was a pupil there when it closed in 1979.

She has fond memories of "climbing down fire escapes, going out on roofs and midnight swims".

She desperately wants the building to be saved.

"It's had many chapters so far," she said. "This shouldn't be its final chapter".

Following the closure of the girls' school, the search began for a new owner who was prepared to take on the huge and costly building.

Jean Morson, 89, got the chance to live in the house when her husband was asked to move in to help sell it.

She said: "We had film stars come, [and] people to turn it into a hotel, which would have been grand.

"One day I was cleaning the step - it was enormous but had to be cleaned by somebody, and someone knocked on the door and wanted a look round.

"He said: "Oh my God, are you Lady Wantage?' I said 'What? Scrubbing the floors?'"

The hall was bought by a Pentecostal church called the New Testament Church of God (NTCG) in 1979 and it became their national headquarters.

On 16 April 2001, the building suffered a devastating fire, which destroyed about 60% of the property including all the main rooms and the carved staircase.

The NTCG listed what was left of the building for sale in 2010 at an asking price of £1.5m.

It was not actually bought until 2015 when Barry Howard Homes took ownership.

In 2019, Barry Howard Homes applied for permission to restore the hall and turn it into apartments.

At the same time, the company applied for approval of an "enabling development" - 52 new houses in parkland near the hall which would be sold to fund its restoration.

Daventry District Council gave the go-ahead for the restoration - but not for the enabling development.

On 17 March 2023, another fire swept through the remains of the building.

Barry Howard Homes said the net cost of restoring the hall would be in excess of £21m - and was therefore "a fantasy".

In its planning application it said the building was "in a derelict and perilous condition" and it was unviable to restore it.

The company applied for permission to demolish the building in April 2023.

Many campaigners accept that a full restoration would be prohibitively expensive, but they do not want to see the hall disappear from the landscape.

John Austin, who chairs Overstone Parish Council, said: "We would like to see the structure stabilised and then used as an amenity for the community for the public to be able to walk around."

Barry Howard Homes has been approached for a response.

No date has been set by West Northamptonshire Council to make a decision on the application to demolish the hall.

If permission is granted, the site will be cleared and is likely to be turned into a "high quality residential development", according to the application for demolition.

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