Cooke'S Almshouses

Cooke's Almshouses are a group of almshouses built in 1660, with the gateway rebuilt in 1736 and some 20th-century alterations. They were established by Sir Bryan Cooke, who passed away in 1660. The building is made of cement-rendered magnesian limestone, with the stone exposed on the right side, and features a 19th-century shaped-tile roof. The layout consists of 12 single-storey dwellings arranged in a U-shaped plan, with wing walls flanking a central front gateway that encloses a quadrangle.

The roadside front includes a central gateway with 20th-century wrought-iron gates set within a renewed ashlar sandstone surround, which features a projecting keystone, a pulvinated frieze, and a plaque with a Latin inscription beneath a cartouche in a coped gable. The attached wing walls have terracotta tiles for copings and connect to the gable ends of the almshouses, each of which has 20th-century casements, shaped kneelers, and roll-moulded gable copings. There are two rendered stacks on each ridge.

Inside the quadrangle, there is a central round-arched opening that leads to a passage at the rear. Some of the dwellings, specifically Nos 2, 5, 8, and 11, retain their original cemented chamfered mullioned windows and chamfered door lintels, all of which are painted. The original roof structure, featuring a tie beam and pegged rafters at the apex, is exposed within the passage to the rear. The 20th-century additions at the back are not of special interest.

The plaque on the porch contains a translated inscription that reads: "Bryan Cooke, of Wheatley in the county of York, Esq. by his last will and testament, signed the 3rd day of Jan. A.D. 1660, appointed this building to be erected, a sum of money sufficient for that purposes being bequeathed for the use of twelve persons the most distressed by poverty and age in the parish of Arksey; to each of whom he left £5 annually, in succession forever." It also notes that "Sir George Cooke, Baronet, great grandson of the above named Bryan, rebuilt this porch nearly levelled to the ground by the injuries of time, Oct. 30 A.D. 1736."