# Overstone House, Northamptonshire - Jan 2012



## a_little_feisty (Jan 21, 2012)

Visited in the company of *Priority 7*, *Ladyhayles*, *Breesey* and *Urbanekul*. This was the last visit of the day after starting at sunrise at St Edmunds, followed by L&H Polymers, Nunn Mills, RCEW and finally Overstone House. A great chilled out day of exploring in good company and this place turned up a few surprises, some of which are shown in the last few pics of this thread.

Brief History:



> The pile 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. Daventry District Council began to get anxious about the extent of decay last year and the conservation officer described it as being in a “perilous condition”.




The photos: 














































































We are already planning a return visit ...

Thanks for looking


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## Priority 7 (Jan 21, 2012)

Very nice shots they were worth the wait. Good to meet you all and an enjoyable day too


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## MD (Jan 21, 2012)

it is nice there 
i like it do you climb the metal fire escape on the other side ? lol



fire escape by M D Allen, on Flickr

it comes away at the top


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## urban phantom (Jan 21, 2012)

Great report the cellar looks good thanks for sharing


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## TeeJF (Jan 21, 2012)

Nice one Fiests old bean!


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## a_little_feisty (Jan 21, 2012)

Priority 7 said:


> Very nice shots they were worth the wait. Good to meet you all and an enjoyable day too



Thanks . . . and yes, yes I know it's taken me ages to get the report up . . . 1 down, 2 still to go!! :laugh:


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## a_little_feisty (Jan 21, 2012)

MD said:


> it is nice there
> i like it do you climb the metal fire escape on the other side ? lol
> it comes away at the top



I saw it on the way in and then forgot all about it . . . I think Breesey climbed it though, he'll climb anything it seems


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## Ninja Kitten (Jan 21, 2012)

looks a great place..lovely pics too


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## Chris34 (Jan 21, 2012)

Great stuff feisty, I couldn't find a way into the cellar the last time I was there 

Did you risk trying the director’s office? I wanted to have a look in the filing cabinets but chickened out through fear of those timbers collapsing on me


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## a_little_feisty (Jan 21, 2012)

Chris34 said:


> Great stuff feisty, I couldn't find a way into the cellar the last time I was there
> 
> Did you risk trying the director’s office? I wanted to have a look in the filing cabinets but chickened out through fear of those timbers collapsing on me



We only stumbled across it as we were heading out 

We can't have gone in the directors office as would have remembered seeing the filing cabinet . . . is it in one of the rooms off the area where the staircase is still standing, or is it over where the pianos are? Most of the doors off the staircase area were sealed off and the one at the top of the staircase was locked but had no floor beyond the door anyway. We had to clamber over a hell of a lot of stuff to get to that 2nd piano and ended up crawling out!


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## Priority 7 (Jan 21, 2012)

Chris34 said:


> Great stuff feisty, I couldn't find a way into the cellar the last time I was there
> 
> Did you risk trying the director’s office? I wanted to have a look in the filing cabinets but chickened out through fear of those timbers collapsing on me



The high winds have brought down more of the remenants of the floor the directors office is slowly filling up with debris bud...


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## UrbanX (Jan 22, 2012)

Wow that place is beautiful! Not see it before! 
Stunning shots!


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## Priority 7 (Jan 22, 2012)

Not far from the other site you haven't done there yet bud  couple more sites and the trip maybe worth your while


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## maximus (Jan 22, 2012)

Lovely pics and a lovely location!


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## losttom (Jan 22, 2012)

Good pics, i keep meaning to get over here as its not far from me


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## a_little_feisty (Jan 22, 2012)

Thanks for the great feedback everyone . . . much appreciated :notworthy:


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## Chris34 (Jan 22, 2012)

a_little_feisty said:


> We only stumbled across it as we were heading out
> 
> We can't have gone in the directors office as would have remembered seeing the filing cabinet . . . is it in one of the rooms off the area where the staircase is still standing, or is it over where the pianos are? Most of the doors off the staircase area were sealed off and the one at the top of the staircase was locked but had no floor beyond the door anyway. We had to clamber over a hell of a lot of stuff to get to that 2nd piano and ended up crawling out!



It was treacherous when I visited a year ago, but you've captured more than I did 

The director’s office is on the ground Floor but as Mr7 says it sounds like it's really buried now


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## Chris34 (Jan 22, 2012)

Priority 7 said:


> The high winds have brought down more of the remenants of the floor the directors office is slowly filling up with debris bud...



That is a shame, I've always ment to re-visit


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## Breesey (Jan 23, 2012)

I think I had a look in the directors office...the roof was considerably collapsed in there, and there were loads of Church donation books, didn't get over to the filing cabinets though. 
I've got a few pics to add when I'm home, mainly the slightly surreal floating fireplaces and chimneys. And a shot from up the fire escape 

Also, gutted I lost you guys just before you went into the tunnel! Still can't believe I missed that.


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## Priority 7 (Jan 23, 2012)

We are going back bud with lighting so no worries there


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## Priority 7 (Jan 23, 2012)

Forgot to add some of mine hope you don't mind feisty


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## a_little_feisty (Jan 23, 2012)

Breesey said:


> I think I had a look in the directors office...the roof was considerably collapsed in there, and there were loads of Church donation books, didn't get over to the filing cabinets though.
> I've got a few pics to add when I'm home, mainly the slightly surreal floating fireplaces and chimneys. And a shot from up the fire escape
> 
> Also, gutted I lost you guys just before you went into the tunnel! Still can't believe I missed that.



I saw the donation books but wouldn't have a clue if that was the directors office. Was it the one before the second piano room? 

'Tis true then I thought I saw you going up that fire escape as I was climbing through the window on that side 

As P7 said we are going back to light the tunnels . . . when are you going/coming back from NZ?


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## a_little_feisty (Jan 23, 2012)

Priority 7 said:


> Forgot to add some of mine hope you don't mind feisty



Of course not, was wondering when you were going to get round to posting them! . . . Great pics


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