Nos. 1-5 Frances Darlington Court With Chapel And Wash House

SD 51 NE 5/19

CHARNOCK RICHARD, CHURCH LANE, Frances Darlington Court, Nos. 1-5 with chapel and wash house

(Formerly listed as Nos. 119 to 127 (odd nos.) with chapel and washhouse (The Frances Darlington Trust))

26.11.1975

GV II

Almshouses, dated 1898, comprising 3 blocks of building and linking screen walls: a row of 4 almshouses under one roof, a matron's house incorporating a chapel, and between these a block of washhouses. All of coursed squared sandstone, in Gothic style, with steeply-pitched and hipped roofs of hexagonal slates (fleur-de-lys finials to gable copings) and octagonal chimneys with moulded caps. All of one storey. The row of almshouses is symmetrical, has a tall gable in the centre (with a decorated tablet), 4 low gabled porches (one at each end and 2 flanking the centre), and 6 stone mullioned windows. At the left end is a screen wall with a gabled arched doorway flanked by arched window openings, which links with a matching but simpler block of 4 washhouses, which is similarly linked to the matron's house. This incorporates as a crosswing at its left end a chapel with a tall gable terminating in a bellcote (with bell); there is one rectangular window with 3 cusped lights and a hoodmould in each gable of the chapel, above these a stone tablet lettered "THE FRANCES DARLINGTON CHARITY". Interior of chapel: glazed tiled walls, stained glass windows, and marble memorial tablet to Frances Darlington (d. 1897) which states, inter alia, that she laid the foundation stone of the church (Christ Church, q.v.).

Listing NGR: SD5555715690