Methold Houses

Methold Houses are a row of almshouses, now functioning as 11 dwellings, built in 1863 for John Eden, as indicated by a plaque on the central bay. The buildings are constructed from tooled ashlar sandstone and feature a graduated green slate roof with ashlar chimney stacks. They are designed in a stretched E-plan and exhibit a Tudor-Gothic style.

The structure has two storeys and a symmetrical seven-bay front with one-bay return wings. The slightly projecting central bay and wings are topped with shaped gables. There are three slightly projecting window bays with half dormers flanking the center, and each wing has an identical bay on its inner return. The windows are mullioned and set in double-chamfered surrounds. The central bay features a Tudor-arched doorway flanked by sash windows under a continuous hoodmould, with the plaque inscribed "1863 BUILT AND ENDOWED BY JOHN EDEN" above the door. The flanking three-bay sections and inner returns of the wings have replaced doors and two-light windows with two-pane sashes, all under continuous hoodmoulds that step over the windows and form pointed arches enclosing trefoils over the doors. The gabled half dormers contain two-light windows. Each wing has an external chimney with offsets and paired octagonal-plan stacks on the gable end. The steeply pitched roof has four cross-axial ridge chimneys, each with four conjoined octagonal-plan stacks.

At the rear, there is a narrow added single-storey outshut featuring seven four-panel doors and two-light windows with replaced casements, along with a tall stack rising through the center of the pent roof. Methold Houses are noted for their well-detailed and largely unaltered condition.