SPELHOE HUNDRED 



OVERSTONE 



park was inclosed with a waU so low 'that neither deer 

 nor other beasts can be kept there', and in many parts 

 the wall 'lyeth wyde open, the dere thereof daylye and 

 nightlye go oute and fede of the corne and grasse grow- 

 inge in the fcildes nexte abowte adioyninge'. The wall 

 would cost {fib 13/. \J. to repair while 30 oaks would 

 not be sufficient to mend the rails and gates. At that 

 time there were in the park 100 deer of all sorts, 

 whereof 20 were antlered.' In i 574 it was stated that 

 there was a 'frebourd' round about the park, 7 ft. from 

 the walls and that the keepers were accustomed to cut 

 down the bushes growing upon it in order to stop up 

 the gaps in the walls and keep in the deer.^ In 1576 

 Sir Christopher Hatton, afterwards Lord Chancellor, 

 obtained a grant in fee of the custody of the park with 

 the herbage and pannage' and at his death in 1591 it 

 passed, according to a settlement, to his cousin Sir 

 Christopher Hatton* who died in 1619 and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son, another Christopher,' afterwards 

 Lord Hatton of Kirby, who in 1634 obtained a grant 



of the Park, to him and his heirs, to hold in chief of the 

 king for one knight's fee at a fee-farm rent of ^^5.* 

 During his lifetime, or that of his son Christopher,^ the 

 park was sold and passed into the possession of Sir 

 Andrew Hackett of Moxhull, Warwickshire, who held 

 it in 1690,' and at his death in 1705 it was inherited by 

 his son, Lisle Hackett," by whom it was sold in 1720 

 to William Thursby of .Ibington.'" The Thursbys sold 

 it some time after 1767 to Thomas Powys, afterwards 

 Lord Lilford, of whom it was purchased about 1785 

 by Colonel Thomas Keating, who raised a regiment in 

 Northamptonshire during the .'Vmerican War." It 

 apparently changed hands many times during the 

 19th century, and in 1871 was bought by Messrs. P. & 

 R. Phipps, the brewers at Northampton, who pulled 

 down the old house and built a plain brick house and 

 farm premises near its site.'- It was afterwards acquired 

 by Sir John Blencowe Robinson, bart., of Kingsthorpe, 

 who died there in 1877,'' and has since become the 

 property of the Governors of St. Andrew's Hospital. 



OVERSTONE 



Oveston (xii-svii cents.). 



The parish of Overstone comprises an area of 1,764 

 acres of which 30 are water and nearly 200 are covered 

 by woods and plantations. The soil is chiefly red loam, 

 producing fine turnips and crops 

 of wheat and pulse, while the 

 subsoil consists of ironstone with 

 some clay. 



Overstone Park, formerly the 

 property of Lady Wantage and 

 afterwards the Philip Stott Col- 

 lege for political students in 

 economics, is now a public school 

 for girls under the auspices of the 

 Parents' National Educational 

 Union. 



The park covers nearly half 

 the area of the parish and extends 

 into the neighbouring parishes 

 of Sywell and Ecton. A high 

 wall, 6 miles in circumference 

 incloses the park, containing well- 

 grown plantations and groups of 

 handsome trees. The house, built 

 about 1861, stands in the centre 

 and is connected with the Well- 

 ingborough and Kettering high- 

 ways by a road passing through the park from north 

 to south. It overlooks an ornamental sheet of water of 

 about 23 acres which has been made by draining the 

 surrounding land, and has a fine view over the undu- 

 lating country. At the north-west entrance to the park 

 the 16th-century gateway from Pytchley Manor House 

 (pulled down in 1824) was erected in 1843. It is of 

 grey stone, with a wide middle archway, pilasters and 

 entablature, and narrower side-openings, the upper 

 part being of a somewhat nondescript character with 

 tall pyramidal obelisk finials. 



The village is small with well-built houses, and lies 

 along the north wall of the park; the church standing 

 just within the gates, but the Rectory and Rectory 

 Farm with Overstone Grange and one or two other 



3 





Ipfflfff 



»-..l-!-. -]ft||l||f f^ |||(l 



I 



imi 



:3i 





■ Memo. R. L.T.R. East. I Eliz. m. 42. 



' Eichcq. Dcp. Mich. 16 and 17, Eliz. 



no. 10. 



> Pat. 19 Elii. pt. 8, m. 29. 



♦ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), ccxxxtl, 82. 



' Ibid. (Ser. 2), ccclxxvi, 1 00. 



' Pat. 10 Chas. I, pt. viii, no. 8. 



' Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 1649; 

 Cal. of Com. for CompcunMng^ 1 580— I ; 

 Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 1656. 



• Ibid. Mich. 2 Will, and .M. 



* Bk. of Deeds belonging to Ishams of 

 Lamport, p. 205. 



"> Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 6 Ceo. I ; 



Overstone Park 



houses are about a mile north of the village, a little west 

 ofthe Kettering road. The population in 1 93 1 was 235. 

 The road skirting the park wall on the west rises 

 from 267 ft. to 388 ft., and then falls again, the house 

 standing on a terrace about 350 ft. which slopes to the 

 lake below, lying at 284 ft. 



Overstone is not mentioned in Domesday, 



MANOR but was probably included in Sywell, and 



was held with it by the Count of Mortain at 



thatdate.'* Sywell was granted toNiel Mundcville,lord 



of Folkestone, when the Count of Mortain's possessions 



Recov. R. 



Bridges, Sortkantt. i, 42 

 Trin. 10 Ceo. II, m. 128. 



" Baker, Norlhanll. i, 5;. 



" Whellan, iSorlkantl. 1874. 



" G.E.C. Baronftage, iii, 54. 



■♦ y.C.H. Norikanit. i, 321, 381. 



95 



