St Nicholas'S Hospital

St Nicholas's Hospital comprises almshouses consisting of two ranges set at right angles to the road, running east-west, and a linking range to their east, running north-south. The building dates primarily to the 19th century, although part of the southern range was restored in 1884 by G.R. Crickmay. The materials used include rubble flint with ashlar dressings, red and black brick, and a plain tile roof.

The southern range, facing north, features an arcade of five arches supported by squat, circular piers with moulded capitals. These double arches are chamfered. The walling surrounding the arcade is of flint, with squared blocks of limestone at the west end and brick to the eastern end. The arches have been infilled with red brick. A low door with an arched head is to the far left, and there are 20th-century panelled doors approached by steps to two bays. A bay to the right of centre has been infilled with flint, surmounted by a modern window of three clustered lancets set in ashlar walling. Hipped dormer windows are present in the roof, and there are 19th-century brick stacks with diagonal flues.

The eastern range is entirely of red brick with a stone band at the level of the first-floor casements and a band of blue brick diapering between the floors. The north range is largely 19th-century work by Butterfield, constructed of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and a half-hipped tiled roof. The south front of this range has two medieval doors with four-centred heads at ground-floor level. Windows at ground-floor level are two-light casements, and there are paired lancets with cusped heads to the first floor.

The interior of the oldest section, exposed on the north side of the southern range, originally marked the middle of a large open ward. This ward was divided to house men and women on either side of a central screen, with a separate chancel at the east end of each. Both chancels survive, but the northern side of the ward has been demolished, revealing the arcade. This oldest part has been subsequently divided to create a master's house, office space, and individual flats for residents. The south chancel retains two lancets to the south and two to the east, with a cusped octofoil in a circular surround above them. The north chancel has two east lancets and one north lancet remaining. Both chapels feature a large piscina in the south wall, each adorned with a trefoil head.