Daniel Taylor Almshouses, Caretaker's Cottage and walls to the rear

Daniel Taylor Almshouses, Caretaker's Cottage and Walls to the Rear

A former house of the 15th and 16th centuries, adapted in the late 17th century to serve as almshouses. The building incorporates a separate unit (97a South Street) formed from the southern half of the front range. Subsequent additions, alterations and repairs have been carried out across several periods, with notable remodelling undertaken in the mid and late 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of limestone rubble, identified as Bothenhampton Forest Marble, brought to course and painted in parts. It is roofed in slate with raised copings to the front range and short east range. The front range features end chimneystacks of red brick, with the south chimney set slightly inset from the gable end. A ridge stack rises from the north range and end stacks project from the east range; all have been rebuilt at various dates.

The plan is accretional and roughly L-shaped, comprising a 15th-century front (west) range that originally served as a two-unit through-passage house, and a 16th-century north range set at right angles, together defining two sides of a small courtyard. A shorter, slightly offset east range, probably of the later 16th century, is attached to the east side of the north range and contains a covered passage. To the south-east, beyond the courtyard, is a range rebuilt in 1866 and oriented west-east. The south and east sides of the courtyard are enclosed by the adjacent Grade II-listed Quaker meeting house (97 South Street).

The building rises two storeys. The principal four-bay front facing South Street contains an entrance positioned to the right of centre, with a round-headed stone surround featuring fluted early-19th-century reveals and a six-panel door. To the left are two mid- to late-20th-century eight-over-eight sash windows under segmental heads. To the right is a three-light casement window. At first-floor level there are two mid- to late-20th-century two-light casements and an earlier three-light casement; the central first-floor window is a 20th-century insertion. A stone corbel is set high in the north gable wall, and evidence of blocking is visible. The sides of the passage are boarded, with a timber plank door on the south side, and the floor is laid with Forest marble slabs.

The rear (east) elevation features metal-framed single-light leaded casements hung on pintles at ground and first-floor levels on the right side of the passage, and 20th-century three-light metal casements in enlarged openings on the opposite side. Further to the left (south) is a large area of patching or infill in the stonework, possibly indicating the position of a former doorway or a stair turret. The courtyard elevation of the north range has altered openings with 20th-century timber casements of one, two and three lights and a doorway in the left-hand bay. At the east end of the north range is a doorway with a depressed four-centred arch and a stone staircase to the upper floor, with its newel serving as part of the door frame. A modern door has been fitted at the top of the stairs. The north wall of the adjacent passageway is built of brick and contains a doorway with a modern door. The passage floor is laid with stone, and the opening at the east end has a concrete lintel.

The windows in the rear elevation of the offset east range are 18th-century casements of two and three lights; those to the ground floor are under replacement lintels. The later rear (east) range displays a regular arrangement of door and window openings under segmental-arched heads with stone cills. The windows are two-light pegged timber casements, and the doors are six-panelled. The east gable end features a later external brick staircase with metal balustrade providing access to a first-floor door, alongside a small window to both ground and first floors. The openings have concrete lintels and drip moulds. Timber single-light casement windows in the left return are 20th-century, including paired windows with brick infill between them.

Interior features include a doorway in the through passage opening onto the ground floor in the southern half of the front range (97a South Street). The timber ledged, plank door is of 18th- or 19th-century date but retains re-used 17th-century strap hinges. The ground-floor room contains a much-reduced fireplace, cupboards with short strap hinges within and to the right of the chimney breast, a modern wooden winder staircase and a rough-hewn, chamfered ceiling beam. The room opposite the passage retains hollow-chamfered and moulded ceiling beams with carved paterae to the central beam, and moulded wall plates. At first-floor level there is a square-headed fireplace with chamfered stone surround in the north wall, a rough-hewn, deep ceiling beam that appears to have been strengthened, and the exposed end of an arch-braced truss. The principal rafters are collared, with a central closed truss, and a single row of purlins is present. The present entrance to the north range opens onto a lobby containing a 16th-century roll-moulded ceiling beam which continues through into the adjacent room to the right (east). The staircase is 20th-century. The north and east ranges are understood to retain some historic features, including two fire surrounds, one with mitred chamfers, and moulded ceiling beams. Notably, the rear ground-floor room of the east range contains a large axial beam with hollow-moulded chamfers and run-out stops. The lower parts of the roof trusses are exposed in the north range.

Limestone rubble walls to the rear of the east range define two sides of a small yard. The east wall, which contains a square-headed opening, turns ninety degrees and continues on a west-east alignment as far as the Quaker burial ground (the walls are listed at Grade II).