| Lyddington Bishop's Palace and later Lyddington Bedehouse | |
| Map Width: | 250 |
| Location: | The Bedehouse is adjacent to the parish church. |
| Gbgridref: | SP8758797005 |
| Founded: | 12th Century |
| Demolished: | Wing of a building, the remainder demolished after 1547 |
| Architecture: | Medieval with later alterations |
| Governing Body: | English Heritage |
| Designation1: | Grade I |
| Designation1 Offname: | The Bede House |
| Designation1 Date: | 10 November 1955 |
| Designation1 Number: | 1264528 |
| Designation2: | Scheduled Monument |
| Designation2 Offname: | Lyddington Bedehouse: a medieval bishop's palace and post-medieval almshouse with moat, gardens, fishponds and cultivation remains |
| Designation2 Date: | 11-Sep-1947 |
| Designation2 Number: | 1013825 |
| Designation3: | Grade I |
| Designation3 Offname: | Lyddington Watchtower |
| Designation3 Date: | 10-Nov-1955 |
| Designation3 Number: | 1236617 |
Lyddington Bede House (or Lyddington Bedehouse) is a historic house in Rutland, England, owned and opened to the public by English Heritage. The existing Grade I listed building is a part of a former palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, later used as an almshouse. It is next to St Andrew's Church in the village of Lyddington. The watch tower or gazebo is separately listed as Grade I and the boundary walls are Grade II. The site is a scheduled monument.
The medieval Diocese of Lincoln was the largest bishopric in England,[1] extending from the River Thames to the Humber Estuary.[2] Lyddington lay on a north–south road and the estate here was a convenient place for the bishop's entourage to stop when traversing the diocese.[3]
After the Reformation, ownership passed to the Cecil family who made it their private house. By 1600 it had passed to Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, son of Lord Burghley, who converted it into an almshouse for twelve poor bedesmen and it continued in this use until 1930. A feature is the former bishop's Great Chamber with its carved ceiling cornice.[4]
The Bede House is a Grade I listed building, and the wider site is a Scheduled monument.
The Watchtower, or "Bishop's Eye", is a two-storey tower set into the garden wall of the palace. Its purpose is uncertain; although its name suggests a defensive intention, it is considered more likely to have been constructed for leisure. Elizabeth Williamson, in her Lincolnshire and Rutland volume in the Pevsner Buildings of England series, revised and reissued in 2003, describes it as a "summerhouse", and the Historic England listing record refers to it as a gazebo. The tower has its own Grade I listing, while the walls into which it is set are listed at Grade II. The remains of the fishponds of the bishop's palace are nearby.
| The Bede House and St Andrew's Church from the orchardFile:Lyddington Bede House Rutland 05.jpg | North aspectFile:Lyddington Bede House Rutland 02.jpg | Bede House, hallFile:Lyddington Bede House Rutland 01.jpg | Attic roof structureFile:LyddingtonRoom.jpg | Bedesman's roomFile:Lyddington Bede House Rutland 04.jpg | Decorated medieval fireplaceFile:Lyddington cornice.jpg | Early 16th-century corniceFile:Church Lane - geograph.org.uk - 1451713.jpg | The "Bishop's Eye" watch tower on the corner of Main Street and Church Lane |