Sir William Drake'S Almshouse

The Sir William Drake’s Almshouses, dating from 1657, are a red brick building with stone window and door dressings, and an old tile roof with a moulded brick cornice. The almshouses are arranged around three sides of a garden court, with a brick wall forming the fourth side. They are a single storey with two and three-light diamond-leaded casement windows featuring stone mullions and arched heads. The doorways have shallow arched heads. A central stone coped gable is topped with an inscribed tablet set on fluted consoles, surmounted by an open pediment containing a coat-of-arms within its tympanum. A moulded brick floorband defines three arched openings. The side gables have dummy brick round-headed archways, defined by impost bands and keyblocks, flanked by Roman Doric pilaster surrounds and entablatures. A similar archway is located centrally within the brick wall, leading into the courtyard. The side and rear elevations feature two large chimney stacks with tiled offsets and moulded sailing courses. The gabled rear elevation has three pointed arched openings.