Parson'S Almshouses

GUILDFORD STOKE ROAD SU 95SE (East Side) Stoke 1/233 No. 92 1/5/53 (Parson's Almshouses) (Formerly listed as Stoke Hospital)

GV II

Almshouses. Circa 1796, provided by the Parson brothers. Red-brown brick, some mathematical tiling on the south gable with hipped plain tiled roof. Symmetrical plan with living accommodation either side of central hall and chapel. Two storeys with brick dentilled eaves and stone coping on central pedimented bay. Two ridge stacks either side of centre and giant end pilaster piers crowned by stone spheres. 9 bay front, 4 either side of centre,with central lead plinth to wooden hexagonal cupola under domed roof and spherical finial. Leaded casement fenestration with intersecting tracery under 4-centre arched heads. Four windows on each floor to each side of central projecting break. Similar window to first floor centre; 4-centred arched head to C20 ribbed and glazed door in stone, roll- moulded surround. Square, stone woolsack plaque in pediment tympanum. recording date and names of patrons. Endowed as an almshouse for poor widows, known as "sisters", the original accommodation was for six women and a matron, increased to twelve and then thirteen in 1980 when the chapel block had a first floor inserted. Photographs in N.M.R.

PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) p.287.

Listing NGR: SU9984150162