Bishops’ House is what we call a half timbered building, with a frame of load bearing timber infilled with plaster, wood and other materials.  The stone layer on the lower half of the building may have been added after the the building was first constructed, leaving the upper half as the familiar ‘Tudor’ black and white timber and plaster walls.  Apart from Bishops’ House, there are only two other buildings in Sheffield of this style; Broomhall and the Queen’s Head pub (previously known as the Hall in the Ponds).  

The three buildings that have survived are not typical homes from this period. Most buildings would have been more modest and of the simpler ‘cruck framed’ construction. The lower stone layer added structural support and protected the building from the elements.  There are some examples of buildings from a  similar period in the area that were built with a lower stone layer at the outset, but in other cases it was a ‘home improvement’ to rebuild the ground floor walls in stone – one that only the more affluent owners could afford with their high quality buildings.