Bishopstrow House

Bishopstrow House, currently occupied by the Bishopstrow House Hotel, is a late-Georgian English country house standing near the B3414 (Salisbury road) in the parish of Bishopstrow, about a mile east of Warminster, Wiltshire.

Bishopstrow House
General information
LocationBishopstrow, Wiltshire, England
Coordinates51°11′52″N 2°8′54″W
ManagementLongleat Hotel Group
Design and construction
ArchitectJohn Pinch the elder

History

A manor house was built at Bishopstrow in the late 18th century, between the Salisbury road and the River Wylye, but this was destroyed by fire in 1817. The present-day house was then begun on the north side of the road, nearer to the escarpment of Salisbury Plain,[1] and was completed by John Pinch the elder in 1821.[2][3] The gardens of the earlier house were retained and are linked to the new site by a tunnel under the road.[4]

In 1950 the house was bought by W. Keith Neal, a firearms collector, and in 1976 it was purchased by Kurt Schiller, who the next year turned it into a ten-bedroom hotel. It has since been extended to provide more rooms.[1] In 1988 the hotel was bought by the Blandy family, owners of the five-star Reid's Hotel and winery in Madeira.[1] In 1995 it was again sold; in 2001 it became part of the Von Essen hotels group, and in 2011 part of the Longleat Hotel Group.[1] In 2018, the hotel was bought by Frank Mountain's Versant Developments.[5]

The house is set in grounds of some twenty-seven acres. As of 2001 it had twenty-four double bedrooms, six suites, and two family rooms.[6] The River Wylye runs through the grounds, and a summerhouse[7] and a boathouse[8] stand alongside it. The grounds also contain two ancient burial mounds: a long barrow[9] and a bowl barrow.[10]

References
  1. "History". www.bishopstrow.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  2. Historic England. "Bishopstrow House Hotel (1364375)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  3. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (1975). Wiltshire. Penguin. p. 118. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  4. Historic England. "Tunnel in grounds of Bishopstrow House (1036338)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  5. Pantall, Amy (9 March 2018). "New owner of hotel discusses ideas for the future". Wiltshire Times. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  6. Raphael, Caroline & Balmer, Desmond (2001). The Good Hotel Guide 2002. Ebury Press London. p. 293.
  7. Historic England. "Summer house in grounds of Bishopstrow House (1036339)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  8. Historic England. "Pump house with boathouse in grounds of Bishopstrow House (1036340)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  9. Historic England. "King Barrow: a long barrow 100m north of Bishopstrow House (1010399)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  10. Historic England. "Bowl barrow 85m north of Bishopstrow House (1019507)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
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