Penrose Almhouses

Penrose Almshouses, Litchdon Street, Barnstaple

The Penrose Almshouses are a complex of early 17th-century residential dwellings, originally comprising 20 units each designed to house two inmates of the same sex. The buildings were completed in 1627, three years after the death of the founder, John Penrose (1575–1624), a wool merchant and former mayor of Barnstaple who is buried at Fremington.

The complex is constructed of local ashlar masonry for external walls with internal brick partitions. The roofs are natural slate, and there is a granite colonnade with a distinctive lead gutter that is brattished and decorated with Tudor roses and oak leaves. The brick chimney stacks retain some original hand-made brick shafts with corbelled cornices of moulded bricks; many have undergone substantial repair using modern brick.

The Plan and Layout

Four ranges of almshouses are arranged facing inward onto a large courtyard, with passageways through from Litchdon Street and a rear passage leading to allotments. A former laundry building stands outside the courtyard in the rear right corner.

The street frontage is dominated by a two-storey central porch with open returns, flanked by lean-to roofs supported on nine-bay colonnades set on low walls. To the left and right of the porch are projecting gabled wings: the left contains a single-storey boardroom, and the right houses a chapel. The rear parallel range similarly features short projecting rear wings.

The almshouses themselves are single-storey with attic accommodation, marked by gabled half dormers. Windows throughout are ovolo-moulded oak mullioned with diamond-leaded panes. The doorways are four-centred with oak door frames incorporating scroll stops and plank-and-cover-strip doors. A continuous slate pentice runs at first-floor level.

Each of the four ranges facing the courtyard displays a regular four-window elevation, with dormers sporting coped gables and purple stone relieving arches. Four doors serve each elevation. The two ranges parallel to the road incorporate wider central passageways with oak frames; the stops on the front-passage frame are carved with the initials of John Penrose.

The Litchdon Street Elevation

The principal elevation features a two-storey porch in the centre with a coped gable. The entrance is a four-centred ovolo-moulded arched granite doorway inscribed 'John Penrose' with a 17th-century-style timber gate. Above the doorway is a plaque recording: 'this howse was founded by Mr John Penrose, marchant, sometime maior of this towne. Ano Do 1627'. A four-light mullioned window with relieving arch is set above, with a sundial in the gable. Tapering granite columns flank the porch.

The passageway from Litchdon Street is lit by what is probably an 18th-century hexagonal lamp suspended from the pentice by an iron knee bracket.

The gable ends of the left and right wings feature four-light Gothic windows with king mullions and Y-tracery—examples of Gothic Survival design. The chapel gable to the right is topped with a bellcote. The gabled attic half dormers are fitted with ovolo-moulded timber mullioned windows.

The colonnade shelters two doorways and four 20th-century four-light mullioned windows (two on each side of the porch) designed to match the originals. The floor is paved with probably 19th-century tiles, and a 19th or early 20th-century timber seat in 17th-century style is attached to the wall. Oak door frames and doors provide access to the chapel and boardroom, with a wicket door into the chapel.

Twentieth-century flat-roofed service extensions have been added to the rear of the almshouse ranges on all sides except the street elevation, though the rear elevation facing the allotments retains original mullioned windows and one half dormer partly rebuilt in brick.

Interior Features

One almshouse was inspected and found to be thoroughly modernised, though features of interest may survive beneath modern plaster. The chapel interior is notably fine, with a three-light east window and shallow coved plaster ceiling retaining remains of a 17th-century decorated scheme with vine motif and a central pendant for a chandelier. Original 17th-century bookrests and benches survive, alongside 19th-century panelling and a 19th-century lectern.

The boardroom displays 19th-century panelled dado with fitted drawers and an altered fireplace. The boardroom also contains a portrait of John Penrose, aged 26, signed by Cornelius Jannsen and dated 1601, alongside a portrait of Gilbert Paige (founder of Paige's Almshouses, Church Lane, Barnstaple) dated circa 1650, and photographs from circa 1910 showing residents in uniform and the interior arrangement of the shared double-range units then in use. Drawings by architect Allen T Hussell, dated 1944 and held in the boardroom, show the almshouses before the rear blocks were added, including representations of former privy blocks behind the ranges.

Later Alterations and Refurbishment

The complex has undergone later repair and refurbishment in the 20th century, including replanning with partial conversion into flats. Some architectural features have been recreated to copy the originals.

The Penrose Almshouses represent a remarkably attractive and ambitious early 17th-century complex, distinguished by its cohesive design, interesting Gothic Survival windows to the chapel and boardroom, and sophisticated architectural detailing. It ranks among the finest of Barnstaple's notable group of almshouses.