Description: In 1220 a family named Le Hunt were owners of Overton, where they continued to reside until 1556, when Thos Hunt sold the Hall and the estate to Richard Hodgkinson. An heiress of the Hodgkinsons married a Banks, of Revesby Abbey, and this family owned Overton for three generations (including Sir Joseph Banks the celebrated naturalist and President of the Royal Society).
The estate then passed to Sir E Knatchbull, of whom it was purchased by John Bright, MD, and William Milnes of Stubben Edge. Later it was purchased by William Jessop of Butterley Hall and passed to his son William de Burgh Jessop.
The Clay Cross Company bought the Overton Hall estate in 1918. They had no need of the Hall, but the grounds, of approximately 1000 acres, contained fluorspar, barytes and limestone. In order to transport these products, from the quarries at Ashover to their works at Clay Cross, the Ashover Light Railway was built. The railway ran immediately in front of the cottages on the Overton Hall estate, which were tenanted by workers of the Clay Cross Company.
The hall was loaned to the YHA from 1933-39 and again from 1950-56, by the Clay Cross Company.