Charity to fight developer's plans to demolish 'beautiful' Grade II listed Overstone Hall

A charity said it will fight the proposed demolition of the “jaw-droppingly beautiful” Grade II listed Overstone Hall in Northamptonshire.

Developers have submitted an application to knock the fire-damaged 19th century building down after concluding extensive damage from a blaze in 2001 will never be fixed.

Barry Howard Homes bought the hall, along with 35 acres of land around it, in 2015. The company said it was purchased with “absolute intentions” of restoring it but has found all of its plans unviable.

The Victorian Society’s conservation advisor Guy Newton said the house needs to be retained, even if it is never fully restored to its former state. He said Barry Howard Homes had shown a “lack of imagination” over its proposal to demolish the site and that the society will submit a formal objection in due course.

He said the proposal was “callously financial” and suggested money mattered more than heritage. A small development could fund the restoration of the site, he said.

In a submission to West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), Barry Howard Homes said all plans had been exhausted for the hall. It got planning permission to restore it in 2019 but the former Daventry District Council turned down other plans for housing on the site around it.

Mr Newton said the hall could be used now as a tourist attraction like the National Trust’s Clandon Park in Surrey. All but one room of that Grade I listed building perished in a huge fire in 2015 but visitors can take organised tours around it. Architects were appointed to restore the building in 2017.

“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.

The developer said it had previously tried to work with authorities on restoration plans, including potentially using Overstone Hall as a care home, a restaurant, a training facility, a hotel, offices and homes. They would each have cost at least £24m, papers state.

In the planning application for demolition submitted to WNC, the developer is said to have “taken all reasonable action to arrest the decline of the remaining parts” of the hall. It said a tarpaulin covering a wing has “deteriorated” because of wind.

The building was built for Lord and Lady Overstone in the 1860s. But Lord Overstone wrote of his “unmitigated disappointment” about it and said it was “very large and full of pretension”.

It was used as a girls’ boarding school from the 1920s until 1979. It was bought by the New Testament Church of God in 1980. Part of the building unaffected by the fire was used for retirement flats from 2008 to 2014.

Firefighters were called to the hall in March this year to put out a fire, which experts said was probably started deliberately. Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service said there were signs of forced entry. Northamptonshire Police said officers are still investigating the fire. No one has been arrested.