Earle'S Retreat

Earle's Retreat is a pair of almshouses built in 1869 by Alexander Lauder for George Earle, designed to accommodate 32 people. The structure features squared rubble with polychrome dressings and has dry Delabole slate roofs with coped gables, comprising three cross wings and six dormered windows. The building has an E-shaped plan at the front, with loggias connecting the wings and a central chapel that is deeper at the rear. It is designed in the Gothic Revival style and stands two storeys tall, with first-floor rooms partly in the roof space. The façade is arranged in a 1:3:1:3:1 bay pattern.

The chapel's front gable end displays a large Decorated style three-light traceried window, which is topped with a hood-mould and features three trefoiled niches with squat shafts. Each cross wing gable has shallow two-centred arches above a three-light sash window on the first floor, with three sashes on the ground floor. The dormers have very shallow arches with paired sashes. Each loggia consists of five bays of pointed arches supported by round piers with carved capitals, and there is a moulded entablature on the loggia balustrade. Within each loggia, there are paired sashes flanking a central three-light sash. The interior has not been inspected.