Higginson'S Almshouses And Adjoining Wall At Rear

Higginson's Almshouses, dated 1697, are a row of almshouses located in Whitchurch, with early 19th century alterations. They are constructed of red brick with painted sandstone ashlar dressings and feature a graded slate roof. The building is two storeys high and has a stepped brick plinth, chamfered stone quoins, a painted dentil brick eaves cornice, and parapeted gables with stone copings and shaped stone kneelers. There are three brick ridge stacks. The facade has a layout of seven bays, with a central gabled quoined break. Each floor contains six two-light wooden casements, with the ground floor windows having tiled cills and roughly gauged heads. The third bays from each end have blind ground-floor windows. There are 20th century half-glazed doors in the first, fifth, and sixth bays from each end, likely with early 19th century returned hoodmoulds. A central ground-floor round-arched niche features a plain architrave, cill, continuous impost band, and raised keystone. Above this is a reset moulded square datestone inscribed: "DEO/ET/PAUPERBUS/SAMUEL/HIGGINSON/MDCXCVII." The base of the right-hand end wall is faced in 19th century tooled dressed grey sandstone. At the rear, there are 20th century lean-to additions. An L-shaped 18th century tooled red and grey sandstone ashlar wall encloses the yard, featuring a rounded corner and rounded coping. The taller central section has moulded coping, with a round-arched niche to the left and a round-arched doorway to the right, both with plain architraves and keystones, and two 20th century boarded doors. A straight joint indicates the connection between the two sections of the wall. Although founded in 1697, the almshouses likely date from the early 18th century and were heightened by one storey, probably in the early 19th century, when the hoodmoulds were also added. Some sources suggest 1807 as the construction date, but this likely refers to the alterations.