16, Bishopric

16 Bishopric is a timber-framed building of mixed dates, originally a house later converted to shops with accommodation above. The earliest surviving part is a 15th-century two-bay crosswing on the rear east side, which originally opened onto a hall and service rooms now demolished. The existing front range dates to the late 16th or early 17th century and comprises four bays, with a near-contemporary two-bay wing to the rear west side, both refurbished in the early 18th century. A mid-19th-century infill block was inserted between the two side wings, and the front wall was replaced in the late 20th century in a style similar to earlier 19th-century refronting.

The building is rendered to the front range with a slate roof and an off-centre cemented chimneystack with three stacks set diagonally. Some timber framing is visible to the left side wall, the right side elevation is tile-hung to the first floor, and the rear elevation shows brickwork in places.

The plan appears to be a lobby entrance arrangement with two wings. The right side wing is the remaining crosswing of the earlier open-hall house, so that the pre-19th-century parts form a U-plan, later infilled in the 19th century. The front elevation has two storeys with three windows. Three two-storey splayed bays have verticals only to the upper floor and multipane windows to the ground floor with panelled risers. A tall doorcase stands in front of the chimneystack, with a pediment, plain pilasters and an eight-pane fanlight. The right side elevation has a stuccoed ground floor with 20th-century tile-hanging above, and 19th-century carved bargeboards. The return facing the rear has decorative 19th-century bargeboards, a 19th-century six-pane sash to the first floor, a flush four-panelled door and a twelve-pane sash with horns to the ground floor.

The left side elevation is rendered to the front range. The projecting wing has a sandstone base to a chimneystack and one bay of 17th-century timber framing with brick stretcher-bond infill. The ground floor has a later 19th-century sash with horns and two 20th-century windows to the first floor. The gable end of this wing to the rear has 19th-century brickwork on the ground floor and weatherboarding above, with a later 19th-century sash with horns on the ground floor, a blocked opening to the right, and 20th-century casements above with 19th-century decorative bargeboards. The central 19th-century infill wing is of brick in Sussex bond with a gable and decorative bargeboards. The first floor has one eight-pane sash and one six-pane sash; the ground floor has a twenty-pane sash and a right-side doorcase with rectangular fanlight and plank door.

Interior: The ground floor contains some stone paving. The left side bay of the front range has a 20th-century spine beam and floor joists, but the central bay retains a late 16th or early 17th-century spine beam with a two-inch chamfer and chamfered floor joists with lamb's-tongue stops. The right side bay has a spine beam with a one-inch chamfer and lamb's-tongue stops, with square-section floor joists. The rear right-side wing has a chamfered spine beam and some reused floor joists. Some mid-18th-century brickwork stands to the rear of a fine circa 1710 dogleg staircase with twisted balusters, square newel posts and moulded handrails. Above is a large octagonal lantern, probably of mid-19th-century date, added when the central rear extension cut off light to the stairwell; the arched opening to the right dates from the same period.

The first floor central room contains an early 18th-century bolection-moulded fireplace with a late 19th-century firegrate with a tiled surround decorated with tulips. The right side room has an early 18th-century fireplace with keystone, depressed arches and pilasters. The left side room has an early 19th-century wooden fireplace with firegrate. The main chimney has two square alcoves on the first floor facing south at right angles to the two early 18th-century fireplaces, probably added at the same time. The uneven floor suggests original wide floorboards covering several rooms on the first floor, though this was covered with fitted carpet at the time of inspection. Much of the frame is visible on the first floor, including a panel on the original rear wall with exposed wattle and daub. The rear left wing stack has a mid to late 18th or 19th-century angle-set first-floor fireplace heating the western chamber. The roof to the east rear wing retains the original 15th-century roof with common rafters and collar beam numbered in sequence. The rear west wing has a roof of common rafters without collar beams, dating to the early 18th century. The front-range roof, late 16th or early 17th century, has an end wall with brick nogging, a wattle and daub partition, a plank door and rafters—including some smoke-blackened reused mediaeval rafters possibly from the demolished 15th-century open hall—numbered in sequence with carpenters' marks. It is of clasped side-purlin construction. The main chimneystack brickwork visible in the attic shows late 16th or early 17th-century brickwork.