Bishton Hall

Bishton Hall is a country house, now used as a school, dating from around the middle of the 18th century, with extensions added around the middle of the 19th century. The original structure is rendered with stone dressings, while the extensions are built of ashlar. It has a hipped roof covered with slate, featuring lead rolls along the hips and ridges, along with moulded stone cornices and blocking courses. The house has panelled axial stacks topped with moulded stone cornices.

The original plan was of a double-depth house with three principal rooms across the front, the central room serving as an entrance hall leading to a stairhall at the rear. A central, eight-bay block projects to the back, wider than the front and extending beyond it. Around the mid-19th century, bow-fronted wings were added, flanking the original front, and a large block with a tower was built behind the right-hand wing.

The south front is symmetrical, with a three-storey, 2:3:2 bay arrangement. The central bay projects with a pediment containing a festooned cartouche. Features include rusticated stone quoins, string courses, and moulded window architraves, with 12-pane sashes on the ground and first floors and smaller 9-pane sashes on the second floor. A circa mid-19th century Tuscan tetrastyle stone portico supports the central doorway. Flanking the original front are further circa mid-19th century ashlar wings, three bays wide, two storeys on the left and single storey on the right, featuring quoins, cornices, blocking courses, and sash windows with moulded architraves. The rear (north) elevation is a long, three-storey, 3:2:3 bay arrangement with a central projection, a 19th-century block projecting on the left, and a brick service range on the right.

The interior retains much of its 18th-century character, including a panelled entrance hall with niches, a chimney piece, and a moulded plaster ceiling. A notable feature is the open-well staircase with an open string, shaped tread-ends, turned balusters, a moulded handrail with wreathed curtail, a panelled dado, moulded plaster wall panels, and a Rococo coved ceiling with a large square lantern featuring oculi and a ribbed ceiling. A similar, larger lantern is above the landing. Other original features include bolection panelling in a first-floor chamber, numerous good 18th-century chimney pieces with original grates, and intact 18th-century joinery, including panelled doors and a balustrade to the cellar stairs. The mid-19th century extensions contain large rooms with moulded plaster ceilings and marble chimney pieces. The house also includes a complete set of servants bells and rack in the game-larder.