Almshouses

A block of 8 almshouses, now converted into 2 cottages. The building dates to the late medieval period but was substantially remodelled in 1637 and restored in 1938.

Construction and Materials

The front elevation is faced in granite ashlar, though a tenant reported in 1991 that this is merely a facing over cob construction. The left side-wall is built of granite rubble, while the right side-wall uses coursed and squared granite rubble. The rear wall is rendered; the same tenant described it as cob, with the upper part largely rebuilt in 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched with gabled ends, brought down to a lower eaves level at the front. Chimney stacks stand at both gable ends and in the central axis, all with granite ashlar shafts, chamfered cornices, and rendered tapered caps. The central axial stack comprises a pair of shafts linked by the cornices.

Original Plan and Access

The building originally contained 2 pairs of mirror-image, single-room plans on each storey. Fireplaces were positioned in the side-walls for the outer almshouses and in the central stack for the inner ones. The ground floor was accessed via an open gallery (loggia) at the front. The upper storey had an enclosed gallery at the front, now annexed as store-rooms for the cottages, with a doorway in the left side-wall. No evidence remains of the staircase that once led up to this gallery.

The structure behind the front galleries appears to be the remains of a medieval cob building, possibly the hospital reputedly established in the town in 1451. The roof structure suggests it originally had low partitions similar to those found in Devon farmhouses, though the insertion of the axial stack has destroyed the conclusive evidence for this arrangement. Garrets were inserted during the 18th or 19th century.

Exterior

The building stands two storeys high. The ground floor features an arcaded loggia of 11 bays. The central bay contains a moulded three-centred arch entrance with cavetto and rounded moulding, indeterminate stops, and chamfering on the inside; hook-hinges survive from former double doors. The remaining arcade arches are segmental, with low-relief carved armorial devices in the spandrels. The arches have a continuous roll moulding carried over the abaci of the capitals of squat, tapered monolithic granite columns with astragals and square moulded bases.

The arcade stands on a continuous ashlar pedestal with a cavetto moulded cornice and chamfered plinth moulding. Both the pedestal and the voussoirs of the arcade arches are formed of large granite blocks. A continuous straight hoodmould runs over the arcade arches, terminating in square label stops carved with a single four-petalled flower. Above the central entrance arch is the datestone "AN = DO 1637".

On the first floor are 3 symmetrically and widely spaced small three-light cavetto-moulded granite mullion windows, now fitted with later iron-frame leaded casements.

Inside the loggia are 2 symmetrical pairs of doorways to left and right, each pair flanked by a window. The inner doorway of each pair has been blocked to form a window. The doorways and windows have wooden lintels; the windows are chamfered and the doorways ovolo-moulded, all with hollow stops with grooved bar. The doorways have ovolo and fillet moulded frames with carpenter's mitres and rather worn stops resembling shield shapes. The windows are 20th-century two-light casements with leaded panes. The ceiling of the loggia is plastered between chamfered cross beams with hollow step stops, which rest on a chamfered wall plate.

The right side-wall has a two-light cavetto-moulded granite window in the upper storey, similar to those in the front wall but with a chamfer rather than a fillet framing the moulding. In the left side-wall, the upper storey doorway has a chamfered granite three-centred arch frame and a section of dripstone above and to the left of it; this possibly related to a former staircase. To the left is a 20th-century window with unusual splays matching those in the right side-wall, though the staircase would probably have blocked it originally. There are no other openings on either end.

The rear has various 20th-century two- and three-light casements with glazing bars, but because this wall is rendered, it is uncertain which openings are original.

Interior

The interior now comprises a four-roomed cottage on either side of the axial stack, each with a straight-flight inserted staircase against the central wooden partition. The partitions take the form of a stud-and-panel screen on each floor, with studs chamfered and having step-stops with grooved bar. At Number 2, the screen is visible only on the upper floor.

A notable feature of the upper-floor partitions is that they rise to a height of only about 1.80 metres, with no evidence that they originally continued to the ceiling. There are no old ceiling beams at this level, nor signs of partitioning in the roof.

On the ground floor, each room has a cross beam with ovolo and fillet moulding with hollow step stops with double bars, and a similar half beam, some of them mutilated. Fireplaces have monolithic granite jambs with either a cavetto moulding or a flat chamfer, and wood lintels with ovolo and fillet moulding with grooved bar hollow step stops. The widest fireplaces are in the left ground-storey side-wall of each cottage; that at Number 2 is particularly wide, with the left-hand end separated off by a chamfered granite monolith. The right-hand ground-storey fireplace at Number 1 has been mutilated, and that in the right-hand upper-storey room at Number 2 is now plastered over.

Two of the doorways leading out of the upper-storey gallery have ovolo-moulded wooden lintels with hollow step stops with grooved bar.

Roof Structure

The roof trusses are smoke-blackened jointed crucks, each with 2 face-pegs and a slip-tenon. There are 2 tiers of threaded purlins and a ridge, with straight halved collars featuring dovetail joints. The size of the wall-post section of the cruck varies considerably from truss to truss. A large number of common rafters survive. The gable details are unclear, probably because both gable-walls were rebuilt in the 17th century.

Historical Context

The almshouses are believed to have been built near a medieval hospital established in 1451, and may well represent a remodelling of the hospital building itself. Unfortunately, their history is largely undocumented. They were acquired by the National Trust in 1952.

The almshouses are particularly famous for their remarkable arcaded loggia. Despite 20th-century alterations, the interior features remain largely complete.