The Bishop'S Palace And Bishop'S House

This exceptional complex comprises two interconnected medieval buildings: the main Bishop's Palace, now used for public functions, and the Bishop's House, the current episcopal residence. The site represents over eight centuries of continuous development, beginning around 1210 under Bishop Jocelyn but principally constructed from about 1230. Benjamin Ferrey undertook major restoration between 1846 and 1854, dividing the interior and adding an upper storey. The north wing, now the Bishop's residence, was added in the 15th century by Bishop Bekynton and modified in the 18th century and around 1810 by Bishop Beadon. The buildings are constructed of local stone, roughly squared and coursed, with Doulting ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roofs, and stone chimney stacks.

The Palace: Exterior

The main palace stands two storeys high with attics, arranged in seven bays. It features a plinth and string course between floors, with wide buttresses having two offsets to bays two and six. Coped gables crown bays two, four, and six, whilst paired octagonal chimney stacks with openwork cappings rise from bays three and five.

The ground floor displays two-light trefoil-headed plate tracery windows in all bays except the fourth. Similar windows appear at first-floor level, enhanced with quatrefoil windows under trefoil-arched labels. Smaller versions of these windows illuminate the attic gables. The central porch, added around 1824, features angled corner buttresses and a gable with string course and central panel of arms crowned with a mitre. The entrance comprises a moulded pointed-arched door flanked by two early 19th-century light fittings.

The east wall extends five-and-a-half bays with large buttresses having two stepped offsets. The first two bays contain ground-floor lancets only, whilst bays three, four, and five feature large two-light windows with quatrefoils above and ground-floor lancets. The final half-bay incorporates a corner stair-turret with stepped offsets.

At the far right stands a deep gabled wing containing a large stone-mullioned oriel window above a panelled apron decorated with shields of arms. This oriel sits on a deep moulded bracket supported by very large buttresses. Set back from this wing, adjacent to the moat, rises a tower with two- and three-light cusped casements across three floors.

The Palace: Interior

The original plan comprised a hall, solar, gallery, and undercroft, with the long range divided by a spine wall at each level. This layout survives with the addition of an upper floor inserted by Ferrey.

Ground Floor

Entry through the central porch leads to a narrow gallery spanning six bays of quadripartite ribbed vaulting carried on corbel capitals. A large 16th-century stone fireplace, relocated in the late 19th century from the former solar, occupies the central wall. The south wall contains a doorway with Y-tracery in its head, whilst a corner door accesses Bishop Burnell's chapel. Stone flags pave the floor.

At the north end stands a very fine Jacobean open-well staircase. Large square newels include a double newel at the top landing supporting carved griffons with openwork pendants. The stair features panelled plaster soffits, painted dado panelling, and a compartmented ceiling with pendants.

Beyond the spine wall, the undercroft extends two-by-five bays with a central row of Purbeck shafts supporting quadripartite vaulting on faceted responds. A large stone fireplace of 15th-century design occupies the spine wall.

First Floor

Within Jocelyn's medieval shell, the first floor received 19th-century detailing. Ferrey complained that much ceiling work was "done by an upholsterer from Bath", yet the detailing proves very rich. Good replica 19th-century patterned colourful wallpapers were installed around 1970.

The east side contains a suite of three rooms with compartmental ceilings. The square room at the stair head features a stone basket-arch fireplace with triple cusping, retaining some 18th-century panelling and six six-panel doors. The long central room displays a twenty-four-panel ceiling with three 19th-century lighting pendants. At its south end, a very rich pair of panelled doors opens to the square south room, where remains of original windows are visible in the east wall, now blocked externally. This room contains no fireplace.

The long gallery west of the spine wall has two fireplaces, dado panelling, and a ribbed panelled ceiling. Windows sit in deep embrasures, and three nine-panel 19th-century doors provide access.

Bishop's House: Exterior

The Bishop's House returns at the north end, backed by the moat wall. It comprises two parallel ranges with a very narrow courtyard partly filled by 20th-century building, a cross wing containing a former hall opening to a porch at the south end, and a square tower on the northeast corner.

The crenellated south front displays four windows across two storeys with attics—all flush two-light stone mullioned casements with cusped heads to the lights. At first-floor level, two windows contain 19th-century cast-iron small-paned casements, and four casement hipped dormers rise behind the parapet. To the left, in a lower wall with raked head, appear two similar casements. Set forward to the right, fronting the three-storey north-south hall range, stands a low square tower with two two-light plate-tracery windows matching those in the adjacent Palace, and a round-arched 16th-century stone outer doorway with moulded and panelled responds and a large keystone with diamond embellishment.

The stone-paved porch contains a stone bench to the left. The inner doorway is a 15th-century stone four-centred moulded arch with rosettes, hood-mould, and small diagonal pinnacles at the springing and key, above a carved angel keystone. It contains a fine pair of early doors with panel, muntin, and mid-rail, all studded with nail-heads. A wide archway at the left end, occupying the site of the gateway shown in the Buck view, opens into the courtyard. Various lofty yellow brick stacks rise throughout, including one very large stack to a coped gable in the rear range.

Bishop's House: Interior

The interior has been subdivided several times. The front range contains two plain rooms, then the inner hall to the porch, featuring the 15th-century doorway, a shell niche, and a stone arch matching that to the porch's outer doorway. This gives access to the main stair.

North of the hall stands a fine 15th-century oak screen with narrow panels and moulded muntins and mid-rail, with a central round-arched 20th-century doorway in 16th-century style. To the right appears a large three-light stone casement with transom; to the left, a stone-flagged cross passage runs through to a doorway at the moat end. The inner hall contains three windows as in the outer hall. The inner side of the screen displays raised and moulded panels with all members embellished, including small-scale chevron to the bressumer. The central 16th-century doorway features a raised diamond keystone and enrichment.

A dining room to the north has a peaked moulded wooden rear-arch and opens at the northwest corner to a small square study in the tower. This study contains a stone alcove in the north wall with a three-light 16th-century casement, and corner access to a stone spiral stair rising the full height of the tower. Numerous six-panel doors with raised mouldings and square centre panels appear throughout.

The main staircase is 20th-century with heavy turned balusters to the first floor, and a 19th-century straight flight with stick balusters in the upper flight. At first-landing level, the window contains fragments of medieval and 16th-century stained and painted glass. A second straight-flight stair runs between the ranges to the west.

First-floor rooms are generally plainly detailed. The north range had an extra floor inserted; one bathroom incorporates the lower part of one of the medieval oriels in its north wall.

The second floor features a through corridor with many early two-panel doors with raised mouldings. The square end room to the tower has a low-relief plastered ceiling with central rose. The window retains early crown glass and a scratched date of 1822. Two bedrooms contain the upper parts of the oriels, which have stone vaulted soffits, one including a carved angel keystone. Above the south range spans a six-bay collar and two-purlin roof with original rafters, formerly plastered. The roof space contains four dormer windows.

Historical Significance

The complex building history, coupled with the splendid setting within walled moat, makes this Palace an outstanding historic and visual document. It contains one of the most remarkable structures of the medieval period, representing "the grandest aspect of the medieval way of life". The first-floor hall stands as an outstanding example of its type, contemporary with those at St David's in Dyfed and Southwark in London.