Overdale

Overdale is a hunting box dating to circa 1875, designed by John Douglas for the Wilbraham family. It is constructed of white pointed English bond orange brick with red sandstone and terracotta dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof and brick chimneys featuring strip pilaster decoration. The building has an irregular plan. The west front is three-storey and five bays. The central three bays feature a single-storey porch with a gabled roof parallel to the main roof, containing two pairs of lancet windows with moulded bands at impost level. A three-panelled front door with ornate hinges sits at the right end of the porch, set within a 4-centred moulded stone arched surround. The central bay behind the porch is also gabled, illuminating the stairwell with mullioned and transomed windows arranged within a giant pointed arch and featuring terracotta detailing in bands and in the tympanum. A chimney rises up the centre of the right-end bay, also with strip pilaster decoration. The remaining windows are sash windows with bead-moulded stone lintels. A simpler servants’ wing and stable block extend to the left, with ventilators and fleches on the ridge. The garden front presents as a series of irregular masses, with a pair of gables centrally positioned above a canted bay window, and a large corner chimney.

Inside, the entrance leads into an anteroom with exposed timber framing. The main hall, to the left, houses an oak and pine staircase rising the full height of the space, featuring turned balusters and column newels. The staircase well contains grained panelling forming a dado. Three stained glass panels depicting galleons reflect the Wilbraham family motto, "Safely into port". Panelled doors are fitted with rilled surrounds. The dining room has a 17th-century style stone fireplace with a plaster galleon above. The living room contains a corner fireplace and plaster panelled walls decorated with running husk motifs. Part of the building lies within the parish of Oakmere.