Spring Hill School is a Grade II listed building in the North Yorkshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 January 1986. Former palace, school.

Spring Hill School

WRENN ID
fallen-beam-vermeil
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
North Yorkshire
Constituency
Skipton and Ripon MP: Sir Julian Smith (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
24 January 1986
Type
Former palace, school
Address
Spring Hill School, A6108, North Stainley with Sleningford
OS grid reference
SE 301 729
Coordinates
54.15191, -1.53969
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Spring Hill School, formerly the palace of the Bishops of Ripon, is now a school with an attached chapel. The palace was built in 1841, and the chapel was completed in 1847. It features ashlar stonework and a Welsh slate roof. The building has two storeys, with the main range containing seven first-floor windows. To the right is a recessed service block with three first-floor windows and an enclosed yard. A covered passage with a doorway on the north side connects the service block to the four-bay chapel, which projects at right angles to the main building.

The palace is designed in the Jacobean style, while the chapel is in high Gothic style. The main range includes a glazed door on the left within a two-storeyed porch that has diagonal buttresses, shields, and heraldic beasts. There are two- and three-light round-headed mullion windows with hood-moulds above them. An external stack is located to the left of the entrance, and the battlemented parapet is interrupted by small gables with narrow attic windows. The rear features a garden entrance in a single-storey annexe with cross-windows.

The chapel has large three-light mullion and transom windows with Perpendicular tracery on the east and south sides, along with buttresses, gargoyles, and a battlemented parapet. The interior retains original doors, door surrounds, and a staircase in the palace, as well as original chapel fittings, including an elaborately-carved screen and stalls. There is a stable block attached to the north-west end of the main range, which is separately listed.

Local climate

Spring Hill School receives an average of 800 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 55% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 72% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 44 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 85% of listed buildings. Of these, 23 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Stable and Coach-House Ranges at Spring Hill School Grade II 56 m
  2. Lodge to Spring Hill School Grade II 433 m
  3. Gooseberry Farmhouse Grade II 840 m
  4. Barn at Gooseberry Farmhouse Grade II 846 m
  5. 54, Palace Road Grade II 1.0 km
  6. 33 and 35, Palace Road Grade II 1.1 km
  7. Highfield Grade II 1.2 km
  8. Gatepiers to Highfield Grade II 1.3 km
  9. Lodge to Highfield Grade II 1.3 km
  10. The College of Ripon and York St John Main Building Grade II 1.4 km