Bishopstrow House

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]

• Official site