The Alms Cottages

The Alms Cottages are a pair of almshouses built in 1872. The door dripmoulds feature inscriptions: "Gleaner & Sower" and "Widows homes," which refer to two monthly magazines, The Little Gleaner for the Young and The Sower. The Rev. Septimus Sears, who was the editor of these magazines and the Minister of the Strict and Particular Baptist Chapel for 35 years from 1844, used the profits from the publications to help finance the construction of the almshouses. The cottages are made of colourwashed brick and have a pyramidal clay tile roof. They are small, single-storeyed, rectangular buildings with a symmetrical facade. A large four-light wood mullioned window with a slender transom is flanked by doors with six vertical panels and pegged cover strips. Each opening has a square label with an inscription, with the window label reading: "A judge of the widows is God in his Holy habitation." There is a central brick double ridge stack.