God's Place and lobby to Church of St Mary

SU6491 8/98

EWELME HIGH STREET(North side) God's Place, and lobby to Church of St. Mary

(Formerly listed as Almshouses)

18/07/63

GV I Almshouse. c.1437. Uncoursed limestone rubble; old plain-tile roof; brick lateral stacks. Courtyard plan. Single storey and attic; five-window range. Projecting red brick porch to right of centre with crow-stepped cross-gable; arched doorway in taller lancet surround with trefoil top.

Irregular fenestration mostly of two-light wood casements. Two-light stone mullioned window to cross-gable to left. Three gabled dormers. Central square cloistered courtyard. Internal wall; timber frame with brick infill. Outer wall has red brick base with open timber-framed arcade above supporting lean-to roof. The centre of each side of courtyard has Tudor-arched doorway with three trefoil-topped wood lancets above and cross-gable with ornamental carved barge boards.

The plan has eleven dwellings of one ground floor room and upstairs room arranged round three sides with probably former warden's accommodation to fourth side. Each dwelling has lateral stack to external wall.

Lobby to church: Tudor arches to doorways to four sides. Carved shields supported by angel heads above.

History: The licence to establish the almshouse was granted in 1437 and the foundation was probably complete by 1442, at the expense of the Earl and Countess of Suffolk. The countess (nee Alice Chaucer) was born in Ewelme in 1409, the daughter of Thomas Chaucer, the lord of the manor, and grand-daughter of Geoffrey, the poet. She married William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk in 1420 (created Duke of Suffolk 1448). He "for love of his wife and the commodity of her lands felt much to dwell in Oxfordshire." They rebuilt the church, established the almshouse and built the school. The use of brick, on the porch, the infill of the cloister walls, etc, is one of the earliest in the county.

(Malcolm Airs "Ewelme" Archaeological Journal Vol.135, 1978, pp.275-280j Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.595-600; Guide to St. Mary's Church, Ewelme, and to the Almshouse and the School, 1980).

Listing NGR: SU6463391404