Stoneleigh House

Stoneleigh House, also formerly known as Hill’s Almshouses, is a group of almshouses dated 1867 and designed by Charles Hansom. Constructed of red Pennant snecked rubble with limestone dressings, ashlar ridge, lateral and external stacks, and a tiled cross-gabled roof with decorative ridge tiles, the building stands on a near-symmetrical E-shaped plan with a rear chapel. It is built in a Tudor Gothic Revival style.

The front elevation has a 10-window range, with projecting end gables and a central full-height hipped porch featuring diagonal ground-floor buttresses, a blocked doorway with hood stops, and a 3-light mullion and transom window above with carved shield panels. The wings have roll-top copings to the gables and inner sub-gables, a heraldic finial with an iron flag on the left gable, and an external stack on the right. Mullion and transom windows are fitted with metal casements and stopped label moulds; the left gable has two ground-floor cross windows, a blind inner 2-centred arched window with attached columns, and a first-floor canted oriel with a moulded base and upper panels featuring carved shields, with a steep weathered top. The right gable has a similar inner arched window and two 1-light windows to the left of the stack. To either side of the porch are three-light and single-light windows, and inner 2-centred arched doorways, with 2-light arcades of 2-centred arched windows beside them. The right return features a five-window range, a full-height canted bay with a steep hipped roof, two cross windows, and two 2-light windows with a central plaque. Moulded eaves feature carved heads. The rear elevation has projecting gables linked by a two-storey, nine-bay cast-iron verandah of 2-centre arches with trefoils in the spandrels, a panelled screen below the first-floor windows, and contemporary glazing. Internal doorways to the individual flats have 2-centred arches and strap hinges. The chapel has coped gables with gableted kneelers, a sill band, an east window with a shallow 2-centre arch and 3-light tracery, and three 3-light side windows with ogee heads. Stacks have corbelled cornices and chamfered sides. The interior has been extensively remodelled and modernised, obscuring the original chapel roof. The building bears the Merchant Venturer’s arms and was known as T.W. Hill’s almshouses.