Overton Hall And Attached Outbuildings

Nursing home, formerly a small country house at Ashover. The building dates from the mid-to-late 17th century, with extensive remodelling and additions in 1702, 1788, and 1900, followed by further 20th-century alterations when it assumed its present use as a nursing home.

The structure is built in ashlar and coursed squared gritstone with ashlar dressings and quoins. It features ashlar ridge stacks with moulded caps, a moulded eaves cornice below a shallow parapet, and a roof covering of stone slate and Welsh slate. The original plan was a 17th-century double-pile arrangement with a massive central stack. Extensions were added to each range at different periods, creating a shallow open-ended court at the north-west end. A stepped two-storey range was added at the north-east end of the south-west front, and a parallel range was added to the south-east corner, linking the main range with a separate earlier outbuilding to the south-east.

The south-west elevation of the main range comprises four storeys and five bays. Originally there was a central doorway, now blocked and replaced by a late 19th-century double doorway to the south-east. The blocked doorway has advanced jambs and a massive lintel with an integral false keyblock. Flanking the original doorway were two-light chamfered mullioned windows, one of which survives, with another reset example. To the south-east of the double doorway is a replacement two-light window. A plainly chamfered band course defines the ground floor. The first and second floors are defined by broader bands set above the heads of former mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights, two of which survive, while the remainder have lost their mullions and transoms and now feature a variety of 20th-century frames. The windows above the original doorway are single lights with eared surrounds, a transom surviving at first-floor level, while the third floor, which never had a transom, still retains leaded lights.

The south-east elevation has three storeys, with a bolection-moulded surround and segmental pediment to the doorway. Nineteenth-century two-pane sashes have been inserted into the surrounds of former 17th-century mullioned and transomed windows at first and second floor levels. The third floor retains two-light chamfered mullioned windows. The surrounds to windows in the central bay are advanced, moulded and shouldered.

The north-east elevation also has three storeys, with two added bays at the north-west end. The earlier five-bay part retains 17th-century mullions and transoms on one first floor and all second and third floor windows, many with leaded lights. Two ground-floor openings have 20th-century glazing bar sashes, with one window and a doorway having been blocked. The added bays feature two-pane sashes set in flush chamfered surrounds. Added bays to the rear range partially obscure 17th-century six-light mullioned and transomed stair windows with leaded lights, and a further third-floor mullioned and transomed window. A single two-light chamfered mullioned window serves the third floor. A later 20th-century flat-roofed link encloses the ground floor. The rear elevation of the extension to the front range has stacked glazing bar sashes of four by three panes in flush stone frames. The front elevation features two-light chamfered mullioned windows matching those of the earlier part.

A stepped range to the south-west comprises a taller five-bay part, possibly a remodelled earlier range which extended into a lower two-bay part, to which a third bay has been added. This range has flush mullioned and transomed ground-floor windows, and above, glazing bar sashes in late 19th-century surrounds. The gable carries a pair of datestones, one inscribed 'H W E 1702' and the other 'W J de B + J 1900'.

An L-shaped range to the south-east features a three-bay hipped roof part with an upper floor containing 19th-century glazing bar sashes. A taller attached crosswing of three separate builds incorporates massive earlier ashlar on the south-east side wall, together with a tall segmentally arched double doorway with voussoirs and an advanced keyblock above a quoined surround. To the north-east is a blocked four-centre arched doorway; to the south-west, a square window with hollow chamfered surround. The gable features four late 19th-century windows and two datestones, one reading '1888 W J de BJ' and the other '1702 W H E'.

The interior has been much altered, but retains a fine 17th-century turned baluster staircase, some 18th-century two-panelled doors, and at least one 18th-century panelled first-floor bedroom.