Overcourt

Overcourt

Large manor house, with phases of construction spanning from the 14th century through to the early 18th century. The building displays random and coursed rubble limestone walls with ashlar limestone detailing, ashlar chimneys, and roofs of stone slate and concrete tile.

The house comprises a two-storey north-south range with a south cross-wing and east oriel wing, expanded by a large three-storey addition with attic at the north end, creating an L-shaped plan, and a two-storey addition with attic from around 1720 set into the angle between these elements.

The south front is dominated by the 14th-century cross-wing on the right, which has a west-facing gable. This gable contains two-light recessed cavetto mullioned casements to each floor, each with hoodmoulds, and a single-light high-level stair window to the left. The south side of the cross-wing appears partly rebuilt, with fenestration comprising a three-light window to the ground floor and a two-light window above. The circa-1720 addition, set back to the left, features three windows across the front. All are segmental-arched 18-pane sashes with keyed moulded architraves, bull-nosed sills, and upper-floor keystones carried over a moulded eaves cornice. Two gabled roof dormers top this elevation.

The east side presents a complex arrangement. To the left, two gables mark the cross-wing, the extreme left gable being the gable end of the cross-wing itself and carrying a gable-mounted chimney. Below this is an attached lean-to outbuilding. Immediately to the right is the projecting gable end of the oriel wing, which appears to have been rebuilt in the 19th century and contains two-light casements to each floor with a gable-mounted chimney with plain cap. A short linking section of elevation features a 19th-century pedimented doorway with Ionic pilasters and a six-panel door, flanked by a two-light recessed cavetto casement above and to its left. To the right stands the full gable end of the late 16th-century range, rendered in roughcast. This displays two-window fenestration with two and three-light recessed cavetto mullioned casements to the ground and middle floors respectively, two two-light casements to the upper floor, and a single-light casement to the attic, all retaining leaded iron casements and hoodmoulds.

The north side shows the late 16th-century range with a chimney gable and two single-light casements. A central doorway with chamfered opening and hoodmould provides access, with two three-light casements to its right under a combining hoodmould. Two three-light casements occupy the upper floor, their positions altered when the west end of this range was internally modified in the early 17th century.

The west side comprises two gables: the left gable has a projecting chimney stack with single-light recessed cavetto moulded casements set either side (one altered to two lights), and the right gable belongs to the 18th-century block, which carries a narrow off-centre sash to each floor and a gable-mounted chimney.

The interior contains exceptional features documenting the house's evolution. A 17th-century panelled room was inserted into the former service end of the medieval house. In the west end of the 17th-century range, a room retains a compartment ceiling with plain chamfered beams. A late 17th-century fireplace, altered, displays long fielded strip moulding. The former hall of the medieval house preserves one roof truss with upper cruck timbers. An early 18th-century staircase features ramped handrails and two barleysugar balusters per tread, with fluted columnar newels and matching pilasters to the panelled dado. The main room displays bolection mouldings to fielded panelling and cornice, with a late 18th-century fireplace. A room above retains later panelling with a corner fireplace.

Overcourt represents a remarkable example of continuous domestic building and modification. The north end of the medieval range was incorporated into the late 16th-century north range. The 18th-century addition appears to follow a similar design vocabulary to the nearby Jaynes Court and Nowell House.

The property is surrounded by associated structures: a boundary wall with gazebo and gate piers to the east, a former stable and coach house range to the west (now Overcourt Cottages), and gate piers to the north.