A 16th-century timber frame
One of just three timber-framed houses to survive in Sheffield, its black beams and white walls two centuries older than the city's crucible steel.
No bishop was ever born here, in all likelihood, and yet the house has carried the name for centuries. Local tradition holds that John and Geoffrey Blythe, brothers who both became bishops around 1500, were born under this roof or had it built for them; the paperwork says nothing of the sort, and the first resident anyone can prove is William Blythe, a farmer and scythe-maker, in 1627. Even the building date has moved: the Friends who run it now put it at 1554, in Mary Tudor's reign, where older guides said about 1500, and if the later date holds, both bishops were dead before the first timber went up. What is beyond doubt is that the house has stood since the 16th century, black timbers on white infill, Grade II* listed, and that it is one of only three timber-framed houses left in the whole of Sheffield, a city that steel and wartime bombing remade over and over. It is very small, and we will not pretend otherwise: a handful of rooms on two floors, two of them keeping their Jacobean oak panelling and plaster decoration, plus modest displays on how a Sheffield household cooked, slept and worked under one roof in the 16th and 17th centuries. A thorough visit takes half an hour, less unless one of the volunteers from the Friends of Bishops' House, who have run the place since 2011, gets talking. They are genuinely enthusiastic and stage free history talks, a medieval fair with re-enactors and small music evenings through the year. Half the appeal is outside the walls. The house sits at the southern tip of Meersbrook Park, and from the slope below it you get one of the best panoramic views over central Sheffield, which turns the trip into a family afternoon out rather than a museum visit: walk up to the house, look round, then give the rest of the day to the park. Children get a brief novelty indoors; the wide lawns make up for it. Practicalities: open Saturdays and Sundays only, 10:00 to 16:00 year-round, free and no booking. It is not wheelchair accessible (a step at the front door, another into the parlour, and the upper floor is stairs only), so leave the pushchair in the park. Getting there: about 3 km south of the centre. By car, free on-street parking by the upper park gates; by bus, either get off on Lees Hall Avenue right beside the house, or near Heeley Retail Park on Chesterfield Road and climb through the park, a 10-15 minute uphill walk. Winter days are short, so make it a morning stop and finish with the park view before the light goes.
One of just three timber-framed houses to survive in Sheffield, its black beams and white walls two centuries older than the city's crucible steel.
Seventeenth-century oak panelling and plasterwork still in place, the best thing indoors.
The park slope in front of the house gives one of the finest panoramas over central Sheffield, free and uncrowded.
Norton Lees Lane (corner of Lees Hall Avenue), southern tip of Meersbrook Park, S8 9BE
As a museum on its own, no: half an hour in a few rooms does not justify the round trip. As a stop on an outing to Meersbrook Park and its view, yes, especially on a sunny weekend afternoon, and remember it is shut all week.
Children enjoy the old house for a few minutes and then the park wins, which is fine. Pushchairs cannot go in: steps at the door and a stair to the upper floor, so park it at the entrance or on the grass.