Bishops House
Bishops’ House is a half-timbered house in the Norton Lees district of the City of Sheffield, England. It was built around 1500 and is located at the top end of Meersbrook Park. It is one of the three surviving timber-framed houses in the city.
The House was built at the end of the Fifteenth Century, around the time two members of the Blythe family became Bishops, hence the name, but their historical connection with the House is unconfirmed. In 1886 ownership passed to the Sheffield City Council and various recreation department employees lived in the house until 1974. It is a Grade II* listed building.
It isn’t known who Bishops’ House was built for but is probably about the right size for a wealthy gentleman or farmer who owned his own land. When it was first built Bishops’ House followed a traditional medieval plan. Builders at the time preferred to construct buildings only one room deep to make it easier to erect the roof.
Bishops’ House had a hall open to the roof with a kitchen next door and private rooms for the family. The hall would have been the main living space where people ate, conducted business and entertained guests. There would have originally been two external doors in the kitchen which were blocked up in later times.
The Friends Of Bishops House are an independent voluntary group run by local enthusiasts, who are opening (weekends) researching, managing and developing a commercially sustainable future for the House. They have a website here.