Waldrons Almshouses And Adjoining Chapel

Waldrons Almshouses and Adjoining Chapel, Wellbrook Street, Tiverton

Almshouses with adjoining chapel, built in 1579 for John Waldron and his wife, as recorded in an inscription on the building. The almshouses were restored in 1987 and the chapel in 1990.

The buildings are constructed of local purple volcanic rubble with Beerstone dressings. They feature a gabled slate roof with clay ridge tiles, and stone rubble shouldered stacks with slate coping. The chimneys have been rebuilt in brick with moulded stone cornices.

The Plan and Layout

The chapel occupies the west end of the site, with the almshouse range extending eastward. The almshouse range comprises a two-storey structure with four rear lateral stacks and a two-storey front gallery between stone rubble end blocks. An external stone stair to the first floor is positioned at the right (west) end. The block was designed to accommodate eight men in single rooms.

The Almshouse Exterior

The almshouse front is of eight bays across two storeys. The stone blocks at each end feature carved panels, including a ship (Waldron was a merchant), the initials of the patron, and the text "Remember the Poore". The gallery between these end blocks contains thirteen timber Tudor arched openings set on a low stone rubble wall, with doorways in the second and twelfth bays.

Behind the gallery, the front elevation displays four Tudor arched doorways, each with a black letter inscription reading "Depart they goods while thou hast time/for after thy death they are not thine/God Save Queen Elizabeth". Between these doorways are four one-light windows with ovolo-moulded stone frames. The doorframes are moulded stone with urn stops and carved spandrels, fitted with plank and cover strip front doors. All windows are glazed with diamond leaded panes.

Above the ground floor openings, the gallery front is fitted with moulded timbers containing plain rectangular sunk panels, with six modern windows above and boarded panels between them. The first floor doorways are timber. A straight joint marks where the external stone steps join the main front at the right end.

The rear elevation preserves good rear lateral stacks. The left (east) return has twentieth-century stone-framed windows.

A lengthy inscription runs across the front elevation under the eaves, reading: "John Walrond merchant and Richord his wife/builded this house in the time of their life/At such time as the walls were fourteen foot high/He departed this life even the eighteenth of July 1579/Since youth and life doth pass away/and death at-hand to end our days/Let us do so that men may say/We spent our goods God to praise/he that upon the poor doth spend/the goods that he hath here/To God again the same doth send/and pay the same with great increase/".

The Chapel

The chapel adjoins at the west end and has a projecting porch to the west and a stone gabled bellcote at the west end. The porch contains a moulded doorway with carved spandrels and a deep carved frieze decorated with quatrefoils below a similarly decorated parapet. To the left of the porch is a two-light window with elaborate carved label stops and slightly flamboyant tracery. The west end features a three-light window with elaborate carved label stops and flamboyant tracery, although the mullions have been replaced. The rear elevation of the chapel has one small plain round-headed doorway to the west and one two-light traceried window.

The chapel is believed to have a wagon roof, though the interior was not inspected during the listing survey.

Historical Context

According to F.G.S. Harding, writing in 1847, the almshouses were at that time "in a most dilapidated state". A chest tomb to John Waldron survives in the parish church of St Peter, positioned between the chancel and the south chancel chapel. The tomb is wholly Gothic in character.