Bishopstone House

SU 02 NE BISHOPSTONE BISHOPSTONE VILLAGE (east side)

5/37 Bishopstone House 23.3.60 GV II

Rectory, now detached house. Circa 1820 by John Lowder of Bath for Rev. T. Bromley. Yellow Flemish bond brick, Welsh slate hipped roof, brick stacks. Rectangular house with rear service wing. Two-storey, 5-window west front. Central 6-panelled door in slightly projecting ashlar porch with moulded cornice, two 6-pane sashes with wedge lintels either side. First floor has stone plat band, five 9-pane sashes. Boxed eaves to roof. Right return, garden front has three 12-pane sashes to ground floor, plat band and three 9-pane sashes to first floor, lead rainwater goods. Rear has attached half-octagonal conservatory of 1828 by R. Read of Salisbury; Flemish bond brick with diagonal buttresses and small- paned fixed windows, hipped glazed roof, gothic-style glazing bars are C20 insertions, to right are three 12-pane sashes, plat band to first floor with five 9-pane sashes. Rear 2-storey service wing with glazed door and 12-pane sashes, single-storey outhouse and flat-roofed C20 garage to rear. Interior has open-well stairs with stick balusters and wreathed handrail, top-lit by circular dome, 6-panelled doors in moulded architraves, window shutters and plaster ceiling cornices retained. Conservatory built for Rev. George Augustus Montgomery, who moved here 1824 and died 1842 (see his monument in Church of St John the Baptist (q.v.)). Cecilia, his wife, painted several watercolours depicting the house and church during 1820s. Ceased to be the rectory c1950. (Country Life, November 12th, 1959)

Listing NGR: SU0850126562