Overstrand Hall
Following the lead taken by Lord Battersea, the next to build a new home in Overstrand were Lord and Lady Hillingdon.
There has been an Overstrand Hall for at least 230 years. On the 27th July 1768 a Thomas pain gave evidence in Norwich Assizes, regarding a dispute over the manor of Cromer Guntons, "that his said father Richard Pain, had seized a wreck and carried it to Overstrand Hall." This was some 130 years before Edward Lutyens designed the present Hall and the building is clearly marked on both Bryants map of 1826 and the earlier Faden's map of 1794.
It is unclear just when the property came into the Harbord family's hands but it is on record that when Charles Mills (a partner in Glyn Mills Bank, London) married one of Lord Suffield's daughters, they were given by Lord Suffield, as a wedding present, the existing Overstrand Hall, which by all accounts was a large farmhouse.
In 1898 Charles Mills became the second Baron Hillingdon, and that year commissioned Edwin Lutyens to design a summerhouse for him. Lutyens was of course already employed in the village turning the cottages Cyril Flower had bought, into The Pleasaunce.
Work began on Overstrand Hall in 1899 and was completed by 1901.
Overstrand Hall Gallery
The design of the house met with a mixed reception; in his book ‘The Buildings of England' Sir Nikolaus Pevsner - German born British scholar, considered it one of Lutyens most remarkable buildings but other critics of the day, thought it "lacked the picturesqueness of his best works." Others thought it looked like a residence in Surrey with a touch of Norfolk texture about it".
In Burke's and Savills Guide to country houses, East Anglia, Michael Sayer writes: "An important early work by Lutyens, his first large work outside the Home Counties".
During the Great War of 1914-1918 the Dowager Lady Hillingdon allowed Overstrand Hall to be used as a Auxiliary- military hospital. The Hospital commandant was Lady Bridget Keppel, Lady Hillingdon's sister, (wife of Sir Derek Keppel, the Comptroller of His Majesty's Household).
According to Major Herbert Dent MBE (Surgeon Captain Army Medical Staff 1914 -1918)who was in charge of all local Auxiliary-military, this hospital was the most luxurious of all the Auxiliary-Militaries. Dr Dent practiced as GP between Cromer and Mundesley from 1889 until he retired in 1913, from a house called 'Yerbury' in Cliff Avenue, Cromer.
In the summer of 1916, the actress Decima Moore came to stay at Overstrand, her husband Colonel Guggisberg of Nigerian fame was a patient at Lady Hillingdon's Overstrand Hall hospital.
Lord Hillingdon's son sold the property in 1932 to the Leicester & County Convalescent Home. Today it is a Kingswood Educational Activity Centre Leisure Centre.
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