Thomas Mills Almshouses

Thomas Mills Almshouses is a row of eight almshouses built under the will of Thomas Mills of Framlingham, who died in 1703, and completed by 1705. The building is two storeys high, constructed of red brick with a band and dark headers, featuring plaintiles and a heavy modillion cornice. It has four internal chimney-stacks with large plain red brick shafts. There are twenty windows arranged in groups of five, with each group containing a single-light window with a transom flanked by two cross windows on each side. All the windows have square leaded panes. The almshouses have eight recessed doors, each with applied bolection mouldings forming two panels and simple moulded architraves; a door is set below the second and fourth windows in each group of five. Flat gauged arches are present above the ground-storey windows and the doors. Thomas Mills, a wheelwright and timber merchant from Framlingham and leader of the local Baptist congregation, bequeathed money for six almshouses, while his lifelong friend, William Mayhew, provided funding for the remaining two.