Overstone, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Overstone, a parish in Northamptonshire, 3½ miles N by W of Billing Road station on the Northampton and Peterborough branch of the L. & N.W.R., and 4 NE of Northampton. Post town, Northampton; money order and telegraph office, Moulton. Acreage, 1764; population, 239. The manor belonged formerly to the Brownlows, passed to Mr J. Kipling, and belongs now-with all the land and Overstone Park, except the glebe-to Lord Wantage. Overstone Park is a handsome stone edifice, built after designs by W. M. Teulon, and stands in a fine park of about 900 acres. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £264: with residence, in the gift of Lady Wantage. The church is a plain stone structure of modern date, consisting of chancel, vestry, nave, and western tower.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Northamptonshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Overstone St. Nicholas | |
Hundred | Spelhoe | |
Poor Law union | Wellingborough |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1680.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with the Northamptonshire Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts for Northamptonshire online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Nicholas (parish church)
The church of St. Nicholas, situated in the park, a little north of the mansion, is a small edifice of stone in the Perpendicular style, built by John Kipling esq. in the year 1803, when the old church, a Decorated structure, was pulled down, and consists of chancel with vestry, nave, aisle and a low western tower, with pinnacles, and containing 3 bells; a third bell being added in 1903: the east window contains glass of the 13th century: there are several mural monuments, one of which, to Mr. and Mrs. Stratford, is dated 1721: the church was renovated in 1903, at the expense of Lady Wantage, when an aisle was added, the tower restored and an organ chamber and baptistery erected; at the same time a stained window was inserted to the memory of the first and last Lord Wantage (d. 1901), the first and last Lord Overstone and Mr. Loyd: the pulpit and font were presented as memorials of the late Rev. Canon Edward J. Birch M.A. rector here 1857-1900, and the organ as a memorial to Lord Wantage V.C., K.C.B.: there are 150 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Overstone from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Overstone (St. Nicholas))
- Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, 1914
Land and Property
Overstone Park is a mansion, designed by Mr. W. M. Tenlon, of London, and built during the period 1861-4, is of stone and stands on a broad gravel terrace in an undulating park of about 834 acres, in the parishes of Overstone, Sywell and Ecton, and enclosed by a high wall six miles in circumference; from the north-west front of the house grassy slopes descend to an ornamental lake of 23 acres; the grounds are flanked by plantations and adorned with numerous groups of stately forest trees.
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Overstone are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Northamptonshire papers online: