Higginson'S Almshouses And Adjoining Wall At Rear

WHITCHURCH URBAN C.P. BARGATES (north-east side) SJ 5441 8/32 Nos. 1 to 11 (odd) 1.5.51 (Higginson's Almshouses) and adjoining wall at rear. GV II

Row of Almshouses. Dated 1697, with early C19 alterations. Red brick, with painted sandstone ashlar dressings. Graded slate roof. 2 storeys. Stepped brick plinth, chamfered stone quoins, painted dentil brick eaves cornice, and parapeted gables with stone copings and shaped stone kneelers. 3 brick ridge stacks. 7:1:7 bays, with central gabled quoined break. 6 two-light wooden casements to each floor, those to ground floor with tiled cills and roughly gauged heads. Blind ground-floor windows in third bays from each end. C20 half-glazed doors in first, fifth and sixth bays from each end, with probably early C19 returned hoodmoulds. Central ground-floor round-arched niche with plain architrave, cill, continuous impost band and raised keystone. Reset moulded square datestone above, inscribed: "DEO/ET/PAUPERBUS/SAMUEL/HIGGINSON/MDCXCVII." Base of right-hand end wall faced in C19 tooled dressed grey sandstone. C20 lean-to additions at rear. L-shaped C18 tooled red/grey sandstone ashlar wall enclosing yard at rear, with rounded corner and rounded coping. Taller section to centre with moulded coping. Round-arched niche to left with plain architrave, and impost blocks and keystone; round-arched doorway to right with plain architrave, raised impost blocks and keystone, and two C20 boarded doors. Straight joint between the two sections of wall. Although founded in 1697 the almshouses probably date from the early C18 (1708, Kelly's). They were heightened by one storey, probably in the early C19 (see straight joint and different brick colour), when the hoodmoulds were also added. Some sources give 1807 as the date of construction but this is probably the date of the alterations.

Listing NGR: SJ5407041729