This has been on my list of to do sites for a while and this weekend decided to tick it off as other explores would require a boat to get to due to the current rain !! I gave UE-OMJ a call to see if he wanted a post xmas explore and off we went.
The Hall is completely gutted and incredibly dangerous as OMJ found out when steadying himself on a staircase only to have the structure he was holding fall off in his hand ! It must have been an impressive sight before the fire devastated it. The Cellars are all intact and we spent the majority of time in there (less chance of being hit with falling masonry).
Part of the Hall is still occupied by New Testament Church of God.
A brief History then the pics:
The Hall was designed in 1860 for Lord and Lady Overstone by William Milford Teulon but it took so long to build that Lady Overstone died before it was completed.
For its time, Overstone Hall was highly advanced, built with double walls, giving it the earliest known cavity wall insulation. It also had a central heating system called Mr Price’s Apparatus, gas lighting and a butler’s lift.
In the early 20th century it was rented by a shipping magnate who entertained lavishly, then it became a college, a girls’ public school until 1979 when it passed through speculators to the New Testament Church of God for £100,000 in 1980.
The fire a decade ago left more than half the building gutted, including the fabulous carved wooden staircase, the library, parquet flooring and massive oak timbers carved with fruits and flowers.
Since then it has gently rotted.
The Hall is completely gutted and incredibly dangerous as OMJ found out when steadying himself on a staircase only to have the structure he was holding fall off in his hand ! It must have been an impressive sight before the fire devastated it. The Cellars are all intact and we spent the majority of time in there (less chance of being hit with falling masonry).
Part of the Hall is still occupied by New Testament Church of God.
A brief History then the pics:
The Hall was designed in 1860 for Lord and Lady Overstone by William Milford Teulon but it took so long to build that Lady Overstone died before it was completed.
For its time, Overstone Hall was highly advanced, built with double walls, giving it the earliest known cavity wall insulation. It also had a central heating system called Mr Price’s Apparatus, gas lighting and a butler’s lift.
In the early 20th century it was rented by a shipping magnate who entertained lavishly, then it became a college, a girls’ public school until 1979 when it passed through speculators to the New Testament Church of God for £100,000 in 1980.
The fire a decade ago left more than half the building gutted, including the fabulous carved wooden staircase, the library, parquet flooring and massive oak timbers carved with fruits and flowers.
Since then it has gently rotted.
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