Overwater Hall Hotel And Garden Terrace

Overwater Hall Hotel, originally known as Whitefield House, was built in 1840 for Joseph Gillbanks and incorporates elements from a late 18th-century house. The building features incised cement render, a string course, cornice, battlemented parapets, and angle pilasters on an ashlar plinth, all made of red sandstone. It has a low-pitched roof, concealed by the parapet, with stone chimney stacks. The structure is two stories high and consists of three bays with bow-fronted wings on either side, each containing three bays, and a rear extension that forms an overall L-shape.

The main entrance features 20th-century glazed and panelled double doors with flanking sidelights, set within a projecting two-storey Doric porch with half-fluted columns. Above the entrance is the Gillbanks coat-of-arms and a tripartite sash window with glazing bars in a pilastered surround. The flanking tripartite sash windows also have glazing bars and painted stone surrounds. The wings contain tall sash windows with glazing bars in painted stone surrounds.

To the left, the garden terrace is an integral part of the house, featuring segmental arches that provide access to a cellar door and steps leading up to open balustrades, which are partly covered by 20th-century glazing at the rear. The rear wall includes a round-headed staircase sash window with radial glazing bars, and the extension has sash windows in painted stone surrounds. Inside, the hotel boasts moulded plaster ceilings, a geometrical staircase with patterned cast-iron balusters, panelled doors, and internal shutters throughout.

Joseph Gillbanks, who lived from 1780 to 1853 and originally from Ireby, made his fortune in Jamaica before returning to England in 1814 to purchase this house, which was sold by his family in 1929.