The Old Almshouses

WORLABY THE HILL TA 01 SW (north side) 5/44 The Old Almshouse 19/10/51 (formerly listed as Bellasys Hospital (Almshouses)) GV II * Hospital or Almshouses, now house. 1663 by William Catlyn for John, Lord Bellasyse. Later outshut to left and alterations to roof. Red brick in English bond, with tuck pointing to pilasters and window surrounds and scored joints to remainder; rubbed brick and ashlar details. Pantile roof. Artisan Mannerist style. 2-room central entrance-hall plan. 2 storeys, 5 bays; symmetrical, Tall ovolo-moulded plinth; Doric pilasters between bays with painted moulded brick and ashlar bases and capitals, decorated with inset carved ashlar tablets, those at the top of each pilaster bearing a single digit of the date. Flight of 5 stone steps to entrance: raised surround with inset ashlar tablets supporting entablature with rubbed brick cornice and plain frieze; recessed round-headed pitch-pine door with Gothick panelling in painted brick surround with rubbed brick archivolt and moulded imposts. 2-light casements with iron-framed leaded lights and chamfered ashlar sills in raised brick surrounds with single ashlar tablets to each side and rubbed brick entablatures similar to entrance. Round-arched entrance to left outshut has re-set pine door with Gothick panelling. First floor: similar windows and surrounds linked by raised brick frieze supported by pilasters. Painted brick modillion eaves cornice. Left and right returns have 2-course brick bands at first-floor and eaves level. Rear: stairwindow with later blocked opening below; corbelled brick cornice with 2 cogged and 1 plain course; pair of large 3-stage lateral stacks with C20 top sections. Interior. Ovolo-chamfered pitch-pine beams to both ground-floor rooms; open well staircase altered but probably retaining original moulded handrail. Lord Bellasyse (or Bellasis), Baron of Worlaby, a leading Royalist commander, established the almshouse for 4 poor widows, and it remained in use until the present century. William Catlyn (1628-1709), Hull's leading bricklayer-designer, built Brigg Grammar School (1678) and was almost certainly responsible for Wilberforce House, Hull, as well as the Worlaby Hospital and Bellasyse's Hall nearby, now demolished. Nattes' drawing shows the hospital with curvilinear gables. A distinguished and important early brick building. N Pevsner and J Harris, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, 431; drawing by C Nattes, 179, Banks Collection, Lincoln City Library; D Neave, "William Catlyn of Hull, the Architect of Wilbeforce's Birthplace?", East Yorkshire Local History Society Bulletin, No 28, Autumn 1983, 8-12.

Listing NGR: TA0175713982