Northampton's Overstone Hall could be demolished after suspected arson

The owner of a stately home which was hit by arsonists just weeks ago has applied to demolish it after concluding a "miraculous restoration" will never happen.

Overstone Hall in Northampton was mostly destroyed following a fire in 2001 and last month the Grade II-listed landmark was engulfed in flames again.

Fire investigators concluded the blaze was started deliberately, with the home also damaged by vandalism and bad weather in recent years.

Barry Howard Homes bought the hall, along with 35 acres of land around it, in 2015, with "absolute intentions" of restoring it.

However, the company has now concluded that no plan is viable, saying the hope of the hall being restored is like “waiting for Godot” and irrationally optimistic.

A spokesperson for Barry Howard Homes said: “Time is not on the side of Overstone Hall, it will not restore itself.

"The reality is that no one has identified a strategy to secure the full restoration of Overstone Hall during the past 20 years.

"The proposition that a suitable strategy might be identified in the future is [in] ‘Alice in Wonderland’ terms, ‘chasing a white rabbit’.

"No public interest is served by such a fantasy."

The building was built for Lord and Lady Overstone in the 1860s, before being used as a girls’ boarding school from the 1920s until 1979.

Part of the building unaffected by the 2001 fire was then used for retirement flats from 2008 to 2014.

Barry Howard Homes said it had previously tried to work with authorities on viable restoration plans.

They have included potentially using Overstone Hall as a care home, a restaurant, a training facility, a hotel, offices and homes.

They would each have cost at least £24m, papers state.

In 2019, Barry Howard Homes was given permission to restore the hall by the former Daventry District Council.

But a plan to use it for apartments and another 52 homes on the land around it was rejected.

The developer said that made the project unviable.

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