Edwards College

Edwards College is a row of twelve almshouses dating from 1838, founded by Anne Edwards for widows of clergy and built by J.P. St. Aubyn. The building is constructed in a Tudor Gothic style. It is made of ashlar with a stone slate roof and has six large ashlar ridge stacks, each with offset and three grouped flues and a continuous moulded cornice. A central round ridge bellcote is also present. The building is two storeys and an attic, arranged as a long range with central and end projecting wings linked by a four-centred arcade with open spandrels and a decorative parapet. The recessed sections flanking the centre have four stepped coped gables, each with a single stone-framed light, with the central two gables being larger. The first floor features two-light and single stone-framed windows with square hoodmoulds, arranged in an alternating pattern of 2/1 and 1/2. The ground floor incorporates three-light hollow-mould stone mullions; number three is painted. Each house has a vertical battened Tudor-arched door with a glazed top section, set within chamfered flush stone surrounds. The end bays have coped gables with finials and kneelers, as well as very small square lights, with two- and three-light arched stone mullions and square hoodmoulds below. The central bay has a central gable with a finial and kneelers and a Latin inscription commemorating the College’s foundation in 1838. The roofline is complex, with opposed dormers on the gable, flanked by further dormers, all featuring decorative bargeboards. There are three two-light arched stone mullions with square hoodmoulds, and two three-light mullions on the ground floor, flanking a large central archway with enriched spandrels, which contains two doorways leading into the houses. The rear of each almshouse has a single-storey projecting service wing.