OVERSTONE
Oveston (xii–xvii 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 College 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 wellgrown plantations and groups of
handsome trees. The house, built
about 1861, stands in the centre
and is connected with the Wellingborough and Kettering highways 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 undulating 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.
Overstone Park
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
houses are about a mile north of the village, a little west
of the Kettering road. The population in 1931 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.
Manor
Overstone is not mentioned in Domesday,
but was probably included in Sywell, and
was held with it by the Count of Mortain at
thatdate. (fn. 1) Sywell was granted to Niel Mundeville, lord
of Folkestone, when the Count of Mortain's possessions
were confiscated by Henry I. Maud the daughter and
heir of Niel Mundeville married Ruallon d'Avranches
(de Abrincis), and the overlordship of OVERSTONE
remained vested in the d'Avranches until, on the death
of William without issue in 1235, it passed to his sister
Maud, the wife of Hamon de Crevecoeur, who held it
in her right; (fn. 2) but by 1275 it had escheated to the
Crown as lands of Normans. (fn. 3)
Beaufort. France and England quartered in a border gobony argent and azure.
The mesne lordship was obtained by Humphrey de
Millers who married Felice the sister of a William
d'Avranches, and probably the daughter of Ruallon
and Maud Mundeville. (fn. 4) Humphrey, who was holding
the manor in 1166, (fn. 5) had two sons, by the elder of whom,
William, he was succeeded, the second son Ralph being
rector of Overstone. (fn. 6) William died before 1223, (fn. 7)
leaving two sons, the elder of whom, William, presented his brother Humphrey to the church in that
year, and a daughter Felice, the heir of her brothers,
who both died before 1241. (fn. 8) She was succeeded before
1247 by her son Gilbert de Wyarvill, sometimes called
de Millers, (fn. 9) but his lands were forfeited to the Crown
in 1271 as being those of a Norman. (fn. 10) Overstone was
retained in the hand of the king for some years (fn. 11) and in
1281 the manor was bestowed on Christiane de Mareys
to hold for life. In 1285 and again in 1290 one of her
tenants Walter le Mazun complained that she had
unjustly ejected him from 1 virgate of land which had
been leased to him while Richard de Holebrook was
bailiff (fn. 12) for 16s. and on which he had expended much
money in buildings and improvements. (fn. 13) Christiane
died c. 1312 when her executors, who were to hold the
manor for 7½ years after her death, (fn. 14) leased it for that
term to Robert de Appleby, clerk, at a rent of £50.
Their lessee offended the king, who confiscated
Overstone, (fn. 15) and appointed Martin de Ispanum
steward in 1316, (fn. 16) but compensated the executors. (fn. 17)
Overstone was granted in 1318 to Donald de Mar (fn. 18)
who, however, joined the Scots against the king in
1327, and was declared a rebel, (fn. 19) Overstone being
forfeited and granted to John Mautravers for life. (fn. 20)
Richard de Grey of Codnor then petitioned the king
for the manor and in 1329 he brought an action against
John Mautravers on the ground that Gilbert de Millers,
before he forfeited Overstone in 1271, had demised it
to Richard de Grey, his great-grandfather. (fn. 21) Richard's
claim was recognized to a certain extent, for in 1331
he received a grant of Overstone for 7 years at a rent
of £35 12s. 11¾d., (fn. 22) but on his death in 1335 it was
confiscated by the king, probably because there were
two years' arrears of rent. (fn. 23) Thomas Wake of Deeping
was granted the manor in 1335 to hold for one year at
an increased rent of £40, (fn. 24) but it is doubtful if the grant
ever took effect, as during the same year it was bestowed
upon Sir Walter Manny in part satisfaction of £100
per annum granted to him by the king, Overstone being
worth 100 marks a year. (fn. 25) Sir Walter Manny was a
native of Hainault, but attached himself to the service
of Edward III and took part in most of the French
campaigns, being present at Sluys in 1340 and at Crecy
in 1346, and was knighted in 1331, and in 1346 summoned to Parliament as a baron. (fn. 26) During his tenure of
Overstone, John, the son of Richard de Grey who had
died in 1335, renewed the claim of the de Grey family
to the Overstone estates, (fn. 27) without success; and in 1365
one Edmund de Morteyn claimed that his greatgrandmother Constance was seised of the manor in the
reign of Edward I, (fn. 28) but his pretensions were without
foundation and Sir Walter Manny died seised of the
manor in 1372, (fn. 29) and was buried in the Charterhouse,
of which he was founder. His son having been
drowned, the title and some of the property became the
right of his daughter Anne, wife of John Hastings,
2nd Earl of Pembroke, and on her death in 1384
descended to her son John Hastings, the third earl, who
died without issue in 1389. (fn. 30) Overstone, however, had
been settled on Margaret, suo jure Countess of Norfolk,
the wife of Sir Walter, who outlived her daughter and
grandson and died in 1398. (fn. 31) In 1391, after the death
of her heirs, she alienated the manor to John Duke of
Lancaster (fn. 32) who settled it on John of Beaufort, his
eldest son by Catherine Swinford. (fn. 33) John of Beaufort, who
was created Earl of Somerset, died
in 1410, and his son Henry (fn. 34) on
his death in 1418 was succeeded
by his brother John, a third part
of the manor being held of their
mother, Margaret Duchess of
Clarence, (fn. 35) who accounted for
half a fee in Overstone in 1428. (fn. 36)
John was made Duke of Somerset and died in 1444, leaving a
daughter Margaret, (fn. 37) who married Edmund Tudor, Earl of
Richmond, by whom she was the mother of Henry
VII. When she died in 1509 Overstone became
the property of her grandson Henry VIII (fn. 38) by whom
it was granted in 1537 to Sir William Fitzwilliam,
Lord High Admiral of England, and his heirs male. (fn. 39)
The manor escheated to the crown on the death of
Sir William without issue in 1542, (fn. 40) and was bestowed by Edward VI in 1550 upon Thomas Smythe,
one of the secretaries of state, and Elizabeth his wife,
and the heirs of Thomas. (fn. 41) In 1577 Sir Thomas
Smythe settled the manor on his brother George, after
his own decease and for the lifetime of his wife Philippa,
at whose death it was to pass to John Wood, his
nephew. Sir Thomas died the same year, and his
widow dying the following year, the manor came to
John Wood, (fn. 42) who in 1610 settled it on his daughter
Magdalen on her marriage with Sir Thomas Edmondes. (fn. 43) They had one son Henry, after whose death
without issue in 1635 (fn. 44) Sir Thomas settled the manor
on his three daughters Isabel la Warr, widow, Mary,
afterwards the wife of Robert Mildmay, and Louisa the
wife of Thomas Gwilliams. (fn. 45) Sir Thomas died in 1639 (fn. 46)
and in 1640 Louisa and her husband gave up their
right in the manor to Mary and Robert Mildmay, (fn. 47)
Isabel having evidently died before without issue.
Mary and Robert were succeeded by their son Henry,
who was holding the manor in 1656. (fn. 48) On his death
without issue in 1662, his estates passed to his brother
Benjamin Lord Fitz Walter who sold them in 1672
to Edward Strafford, (fn. 49) whose son Henry pulled down
the old manor-house and built a new one in its place,
which he sold with the manor in 1737 to Thomas,
afterwards Sir Thomas Drury, bart. (fn. 50) Through Sir
Thomas the manor passed together with the advowson
of Little Billing (q.v.) to Lord Brownlow, who conveyed it in 1791 to John Kipling, one of the clerks in
chancery and Keeper of the Public Records, (fn. 51) of whom
it was purchased in 1832 by Mr. Loyd, (fn. 52) father of
Lord Overstone, after which date it has a descent
identical with that of Abington Manor (q.v.).
Park
The park which now surrounds the house
originated in the licence given to Gilbert de
Millers by Henry III in 1255 to 'inclose with
a dike and hedge or with a wall, his wood of Ouiston,
and to make a park thereof'. (fn. 53) It is referred to in 1358,
when John Waryn of Yardley, a canon of Ravenstone
Priory (Bucks.), and others poached deer in Sir Walter
Manny's park of Overstone. (fn. 54) During the reign of
Henry VIII several grants were made of the keepership
of the park. (fn. 55)
In 1275 two mills are mentioned as belonging to the
manor, (fn. 56) which were there also in 1372. (fn. 57) In 1545
Baldwin Willoughby received a 21 years' lease of a watermill, (fn. 58) which was granted with the manor is 1550 to
Thomas Smythe. (fn. 59) The second mill must have fallen into
disuse before this date as there is mention of one only,
which descended with the manor during the 16th and
17th centuries although at the present day there is no
trace of it.
Church
The church of ST. NICHOLAS, which
stands within the park about a quarter of a
mile north of the mansion, was erected on
a new site about 1803 at the sole charge of Mr. John
Kipling, in place of an older building which was then
pulled down. (fn. 60) The old church stood in front of the former manor-house and consisted of chancel, nave, north
aisle and embattled west tower. (fn. 61) No adequate record
of it has been preserved, and the belief that it belonged
to the Decorated period (fn. 62) is based on insufficient data.
The present building consists of chancel, 15 ft. 6 in.
long by 19 ft. 6 in. wide, with vestry on the north and
organ-chamber on the south side; nave, 30 ft. 6 in.
by 10 ft. 3 in., south aisle, 11 ft. wide, and west tower,
11 ft. 4 in. by 8 ft. 2 in., all these measurements being
internal. There is also a porch on the north side of the
tower. The chancel and nave are under a single slated
eaved roof, and the tower is of three stages with embattled parapet and pinnacles. As originally built, the
church consisted only of chancel, nave, and tower, with
west gallery and squire's pew on the south side of the
chancel. (fn. 63) It was in the Gothic style of the day, faced
with Kingsthorpe stone, and the interior was described
in 1849 as being 'emphatically neat'. (fn. 64) In 1903 the
building was restored, the south aisle and organ-chamber added, the gallery removed, and the interior
remodelled. All the fittings, including the font (fn. 65) and
pulpit are modern. There are mural tablets from the
old church to Frances, wife of Henry Stratford and
daughter of Thomas Penruddock (d. 1717), Edward
Stratford (d. 1721), and Elizabeth, wife of the Rev.
Paul Ives, rector (d. 1792): later ones commemorate
John Kipling (d. 1830), Harriet, Lady Overstone
(d. 1864), Lord Overstone (d. 1883), and Canon
E. J. Birch, rector 1857–1900. In the east window is
some late medieval German glass, with figures of our
Lord and St. John the Baptist.
There are three bells: the first an alphabet bell by
Hugh Watts 1609, the second by Henry Bagley 1676,
and the third by Taylor & Co. of Loughborough, 1903. (fn. 66)
The plate consists of a bread-holder of 1689 inscribed 'The gift of Paul Ives, rector, to the church of
Overston 1704'; a cup and paten of 1735, the former
inscribed 'Overston. This cup and Paten were exchanged at ye expence of Doctor Paul Ives, Rector, for
ye use of ye Communion Table, 1736'; and a flagon
of 1735 given by Dr. Ives in the following year. (fn. 67)
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms
1673–1812, burials 1680–1812, (ii) marriages, 1754–
1812.
Advowson
The advowson of Overstone
Church, first mentioned in 1223, (fn. 68)
was appendant to the manor until the
end of the 17th century when it was sold by Edward
Stratford to Robert Ives, (fn. 69) in whose family it remained
until 1743 when Paul Ives conveyed it to Sir Thomas
Drury, bart. (fn. 70) It was thus re-united with the manor,
and descended with it until 1923, when the rectory
was united with that of Sywell (q.v.), the patronage of
the united benefices being exercised alternately by the
Duchy of Cornwall and Mr. G. E. Stott. (fn. 71)
In the reign of Henry III and in 1291 the church
was valued at 12 marks, (fn. 72) while by 1535 its value had
risen to £13 6s. 8d. (fn. 73)
Charities
Edward Stratford by his will dated
22 January 1714 charged his manor
of Overstone with a yearly payment of
20s. to the poor. This charge is paid by the owner of
Overstone Farm and is distributed in cash to poor
widows, as is a rent-charge of 10s. formerly given by
a Dr. Bentham, also paid by the owner of Overstone
Farm.
John Kipling by his will proved 23 September 1831
gave to the rector and churchwardens a sum of £200
Consols, now with the Official Trustees of Charitable
Funds, the interest to be applied for the benefit of such
poor women who shall have the care of the church.
The dividends, amounting to £5 yearly, are paid to the
sexton.