The Almshouses

The Almshouses are a terrace of three cottages built around 1614 for Sir Robert Gardener. Originally constructed as six almshouses, they are made of narrow red and buff bricks and feature parapet gables. The roof is slated, with two internal chimneys made of red and buff bricks, each topped with sawtooth shafts, and a similar chimney rising from the apex of each gable. The building is single-storey and has six windows, which are two-light mullioned windows with plastered surrounds designed to resemble ashlar work. Each window has an ovolo-moulded label above it, and the windows are fitted with 20th-century steel casements that have leaded lights.

The central entrance doorway has a plastered outer frame with a cambered head and a heavy wooden inner frame, leading to a boarded door from the 18th or 19th century. Each of the end cottages has a pair of doorways, with plasterwork and labels that match the windows. The right-hand pair of doors are battened plank doors and may be original, while the left-hand pair consists of unoriginal boarded doors, one of which is blocked and the other dating from the 18th or 19th century. Above the central doorway is a gable that contains a square sundial. Beneath the sundial is a square limestone panel inscribed with the following text: "SIR ROBERT GARDENER KT. SOMETIME LORD OF THESE MANORS OF ELMSWELL AND WOLPIT FOUNDED THIS ALMSHOUSE IN YE TIME OF HIS LIFE AN° 1614 AND GAVE UNTO IT SUFFICIENT MAINTENANCE FOR SIX POORE WOMEN WIDOWS TO CONTINUE FOR EVER."