Men'S Almhouses Walled Forecourt With Gateway To Nos 1 To 4

Dated 1700 and restored in 1891, this is a stone building with an ashlar frontage, forming a walled forecourt leading to numbers 1 to 4, which comprise four dwellings for elderly men. The building has two storeys and a hipped roof covered in stone tiles, with projecting eaves. Two tall ashlar chimneys are present, one bearing a carved stone letter "K" and the other an "M," each surmounted by a coronet, referencing the Dukes of Kingston and Earls Manvers. Each house has one window on each floor, with leaded casements featuring stone mullions, and a plain square-headed doorway opening onto a small forecourt facing Frome Road. A carved stone achievement sits above the central doorway, displaying the coat of arms (sable, three poleaxes palewise two and one argent) and the crest (an arm embowed in armour holding a poleaxe) of the Ball family. The forecourt is enclosed by a stone wall with urns, and features a gateway with ball-capped stone piers, a wrought-iron gate, and handrails incorporating armorial bearings of three poleaxes. The buildings form a group with The Three Horseshoes, The Liberal Club, The Baptist Chapel, The Congregational Church and Hall, numbers 6 to 16, 19 to 22, 36, 42 to 49, and Westbury House, along with number 1 St Margaret's Hill.