Almshouses is a Grade II listed building in the West Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 July 1955. Almshouses.

Almshouses

WRENN ID
dusted-trefoil-moth
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
West Suffolk
Constituency
Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket MP: Dr Peter Prinsley (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
14 July 1955
Type
Almshouses
Address
Almshouses, the Street, Ampton
OS grid reference
TL 866 712
Coordinates
52.30739, 0.73645
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The building consists of four almshouses that are currently unoccupied. A tablet in the central pediment is dated 1693 and features a Latin inscription honoring the founder, Dorothy Calthorpe. The almshouses are single storey and constructed from colour-washed brick, with chamfered and rusticated red brick quoins and dressings. They have a slightly projecting central bay topped with a triangular pediment and a brick dentil cornice. The roof is covered with black glazed pantiles and there are two internal chimney-stacks, each with two round shafts made of ornate moulded brick.

There are four late 19th-century canted bay windows set in earlier openings, which have 20th-century small-paned casements. The central entrance features a door with eight raised fielded panels, flanked by subordinate doors in recessed porches. The almshouses underwent significant restoration in the mid-19th century, during which the current roof, chimney-stacks, and dentil cornice were added to the original structure. The faint Latin inscription reads: 'MDCXCIII DOROTHEA CALTHORPE HOSPITIUM HOC FUNDIT VIRGO IN VIRGINIUM SOLAMEN.' Originally, the almshouses were intended to support six poor women, but the endowment was insufficient for that purpose.

Local climate

Almshouses sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 93% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 54% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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