The Bishop's Palace is a 17th-century building situated in the north-east corner of the Cathedral Close in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of the county town of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

in England. The current building replaced a medieval Bishop's Palace built in the 14th century for Bishop Langton. The first palace was destroyed during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

and rebuilt in 1687 as the current building. The palace was residence to the

Bishop of Lichfield The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West M ...

from the late 1860s until 1954, it is now used by

Lichfield Cathedral School Lichfield Cathedral School is a private day school in the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It traces its lineage to the 14th century when Lichfield Cathedral made provisions to educate its choristers. The school in its current form no ...

. The palace is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. To the north and east of the house are the remains of the ditch that surrounded the Close, remains of the north-east tower are present in the rear garden of the palace and is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

Architecture

Construction of the building began in 1686 and was completed in 1687. The architect was Edward Pierce who had previously worked as one of Christopher Wren's masons. The building was built in the Queen Anne style and comprises two storeys with a seven-window range, low-pitched hipped roof with dormer windows. The front of the house has a symmetrical layout and is topped with a classical pediment over the doorway. As built the palace comprised on the ground floor, a central hall and parlour with a drawing room on the east and a chapel on the west. A bakehouse, brewhouse, and pigsty were built in the north-west corner of the grounds, the rest of which was laid out as gardens and a cherry orchard. In 1868-69 two wings were added to either side of the house and a chapel to the north-west angle. The chapel is built in a

gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

with

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s. The original and subsequent buildings are faced in grey

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone.

History

The first building at this location was built for Bishop Langton in 1304–14. This building stretched along the east wall of the Close and was enclosed by its own wall. Walter the carpenter and Hugh de la Dale, a mason were responsible for a palace whose great hall was the fifth or sixth largest in England at the time at 100 ft x 56 ft. The hall was probably aisled, with columns supporting an elaborately carved wooden roof admired in 1634 for its gilt carvings. Paintings of the coronation, marriages, wars and funeral of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

decorated the walls and were still visible in the 1590s. The bishop's private quarters lay north of the hall. To the south what was called the Lady's Chamber in 1685 was possibly a reception room. A chapel was built south of the hall, whose east end was a tower protruding from the Close wall. The chapel may have had two storeys: a lower one with access from the passage for the use of servants, and an upper one with access from the Lady's Chamber for the bishop's use. At the south end of the courtyard was a gateway which faced the main, south east entrance of the Close. The palace grounds were entered through a gateway in the south west corner of an inner courtyard. The original palace was severely damaged during the three sieges of the Cathedral Close in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

from 1643 to 1646. The building was effectively a shell, all the timber work of the hall and of the chambers at its north end was destroyed and only the stone vault remained. After the war Bishop Hacket used stone from the building to renovate a house on the south side of the Close as his residence. The only fragment of the medieval palace which survives is the base of a column found in the early 20th century and set up in the garden. In 1684 an order to rebuild the palace was put forward to

Archbishop Sancroft William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indulgen ...

who delegated the task to Dean Addison. The site was cleared and construction took 18 months, completed in 1687. When built the Bishops did not want to live there and the palace was let to tenants, one of which was

Anna Seward Anna Seward (12 December 1742 ld style: 1 December 1742./ref>Often wrongly given as 1747.25 March 1809) was an English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield. She benefited from her father's progressive views on female education. L ...

. The palace once again became the Bishops residence when

Bishop Selwyn George Augustus Selwyn (5 April 1809 – 11 April 1878) was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand (which included Melanesia) from 1841 to 1869. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was metropolitan bishop ...

took occupancy in the late 1860s. Selwyn added a chapel to the north-west corner in 1868 and two wings either side of the palace in 1869. The palace remained the bishop's residence until 1953, when Bishop Reeve moved into Bishop's House on the south side of the Close, and the palace was vested in the dean and chapter. Since 1954 the palace has been occupied by Lichfield Cathedral School as one of their teaching buildings.

References

{{Coord, 52.686252, -1.830373, region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in Lichfield Grade I listed houses Grade I listed buildings in Staffordshire Episcopal palaces in England Grade I listed palaces

Architecture

History

See also

References