Preston Hospital including screen and gates in front

This is a very fine example of Georgian almshouses, built around 1725. The hospital was founded in 1716 by the will of Lady Catherine Herbert, daughter of the first Earl of Bradford and widow of the last Lord Herbert of Chirbury, with further funding of £1,000 for the large dining hall contributed by her brother Lord Torrington in 1719.

The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, featuring a tiled hipped roof and parapet. There are two storeys. The central five bays are flanked by a twelve-bay projecting wing featuring nine-bay rusticated elliptical arcades. Sash windows with glazing bars sit within moulded stone architraves. The north-west wing is the oldest section and provides rooms for almswomen, while the slightly later north-east wing was used to teach children domestic service. The central connecting range contains the main hall, arranged as a 2:3:2 bay composition. The central three bays feature giant pilasters and a heavy Doric entablature with balustrade, two large arched windows in Gibbs surrounds, and an impressive central doorway with a round-arched Gibbs surround and pediment.

A Victorian stone clock tower is situated above the centre of the building. Later quadrant wings were added flanking the original wings on the right and left. A fine, ornate 18th-century wrought-iron screen and gates, topped with an overthrow featuring masques and a unicorn, stand across the front of the quadrangle, flanked by cast-iron railings; an order for the railings was placed with the Coalbrookdale Company in 1731. A short avenue of trees leads from the gates to a pair of small gate lodges.

The hall's interior features contemporary panelling, two fireplaces with arched niches above, and portraits of the founders.