Edwards Homes

Edwards Homes is a group of five almshouses built in 1894, endowed by Sir Henry Edwards. The buildings are constructed from broad Mayne brick with Portland stone dressings, topped with slate roofs featuring scalloped clay ridges. They form part of a larger group that begins in Rodwell Road, and are designed in a Tudor Revival style.

The buildings are two storeys high, each with one window set within a flush face gable. The windows are 3-light casements with stone transoms and mullions, featuring alternating flush jamb stones and plain lintels. Ground floor windows have small stone labels above them, which extend over the doors to numbers 10 and 11. Upper lights have small diamond panes within cast-iron frames, while lower lights feature smaller rectangular panes. A Portland stone panel above the first-floor window of number 14 displays the date 1894. The doors, accessed via stone steps and paired at numbers 10 and 11, have three small panels below glazed lights, all set beneath a deep transom light with diagonal panes.

A rock-faced stone plinth runs along the base, with a thin stone band separating it from the brickwork approximately 0.6 meters above. A similar sill band is positioned at first floor level. The gables feature a blind lancet within a stone sill and head, with coped verges, kneelers, and roll-mould saddle stones. Raised coped verges are present at each party wall and end gable, and the brick stacks are topped with high stone cappings and crenellations. Above each door is a Portland stone sunk panel bearing the monogram EH and a lion's head, surmounted by a label with a raised centre.

Numbers 10 and 11 feature a three-panel door with three upper glazed panels and Portland stone panels with a carved lion's head and EH monogram, all beneath ogee heads. The doors to numbers 13 and 14 are situated in the internal angle of a short projecting wing, incorporating a slated porch supported by deep Portland stone brackets. Original cast-iron downpipes with square hopper-heads and ovolo-mould gutters are also present. The return to Rodwell Road displays a large external stack with stone offset at first-floor level, and a niche with decorative terracotta tiles and a gabled label. The stack has been cropped below ridge height. Single-light windows are situated to each side at ground floor, matching the detailing of the main front. Various rear projections and single-light windows can be found at each level.

A large Portland stone panel is set on the outer corner of the building, featuring a nodding-ogee head above a shield displaying a coat of arms and the inscription 'Perseverance'. Below this is the inscription, 'THESE HOMES WERE ERECTED AND ENDOWED BY SIR HENRY EDWARDS. A.D.1894.' Sir Henry was Mayor of Weymouth, a Member of Parliament for the constituency, and a considerable benefactor to the town. The interior was not inspected. These almshouses are richly detailed and remain externally little altered, with a similar almshouse group located in Rodwell Avenue.