Bishops House

Bishop’s House is a timber-framed farmhouse, now a museum, situated in Norton Lees, Sheffield. The core of the building dates to around 1500, with a significant west wing rebuilt in approximately 1550. A floor was inserted into the open hall around 1627, and the west wing was extended and a stone plinth added about 1650. Further alterations occurred around 1753, followed by restorations in 1886 and a conversion in 1974-76. The construction combines timber framing with rendered nogging, coursed rubble stonework, squared dressed stone, and a stone slate roof. The building features single side wall and gable stacks with double lozenge-shaped flues, all dating to the 19th century, as well as a single ridge stack of the same period. It is arranged in an L-plan.

The south front, displaying herringbone timber framing, includes a projecting gabled wing with coved eaves, a 19th-century patterned bargeboard, and a finial. A two-light coved oriel window with wooden mullions and leaded glazing sits above a similar, six-light cross-mullioned window. To the right is the hall range, comprising six bays with two coved oriel windows (three and two lights respectively). Below these are two wood mullioned windows (four and three lights), flanked by single doors. The west return features two bays of close studding with diagonal braces. A single three-light casement is present to the left, and beneath it are two mullioned windows (two and three lights), with drip moulds. A single-bay stone addition to the left contains a three-light stone mullioned window, a two-light casement, and a 20th-century door. The north side features a projecting stone right wing with a single window between floors, a two-light mullioned window and a single window above to the left, and a two-light mullioned window on the ground floor also to the left. The return to the left has a single window, and a range to the left shows herringbone framing, with a single window with wooden mullions to its left and a three-light leaded window on the right. A blocked doorway is flanked to the left by a two-light cross casement and to the right by a plank door. The east gable displays herringbone framing, coved eaves, and a coved oriel window of five lights.

Internally, much of the original timber framing remains. The roof structure incorporates a king post truss with single purlins, wind braces, and struts to the ridge. Original features include stud partitions (one with arch braces), wattle and daub infill, a late 17th-century oak dogleg stair with splat balusters, a parlour with a cross beam plaster ceiling and a fireplace dating back to 1627, a lower hall with moulded beams and joists and a panelled wall dated 1627 and a plain stone fireplace from the early 17th century, and a chamber above the parlour with cleft floorboards and a moulded plaster frieze over the fireplace, also from 1627. The north chamber of the west wing retains a fireplace with a plaster overmantel from 1650. The house also contains five fielded six-panel doors and three plank doors.

Historically, the house was owned by the Blythe family from 1627 to 1753, who were significant scythe manufacturers and Nonconformist ministers. William Blythe and his son carried out alterations between 1627 and c1650. Bishop’s House is one of only three surviving timber-framed structures in Sheffield.