St Anne's Hospital

St Anne's Hospital

This almshouse complex, founded between 1651 and 1653 by Lady Anne Clifford, comprises thirteen houses and a chapel arranged around a cobbled courtyard, with a former communal hall now converted to a cottage. The building is constructed of local red sandstone with ashlar dressings beneath hipped Welsh slate roofs with regularly-spaced stone ridge chimneystacks.

The site occupies Boroughgate, the main medieval street of the town, on ground that slopes steeply to the north. The west elevation facing the street is two storeys with seven bays. The central bay contains a chamfered segmental-headed archway forming the main entrance, above which is a sandstone panel bearing Lady Anne's arms and those of her mother. The three bays flanking the entrance on either side each have ground and first floor windows set within plain stone surrounds, fitted with timber eight-over-eight unhorned sash window frames; some of these retain evidence of earlier surrounds with long and short jamb stones.

The right return of the west elevation has seven regularly-spaced first floor windows in plain stone surrounds, mostly fitted with two-over-two sash frames, with similar windows to the ground floor, some occupying earlier openings. The rear garden elevation is lime-washed with window openings in plain stone surrounds, many of which are replacements. The south end, formerly the communal hall and now a cottage, is lit by two-light mullioned windows with leaded glass on both ground and first floors, the latter also featuring a single narrow light. An off-centre entrance through the east side provides access to the garden, with an attached lean-to extension occupying the site of a demolished house. The chapel at the corner is lit by a two-light round-arched mullioned window with leaded glass.

The central entrance passage opens into a full-width courtyard with a water fountain at its centre. The four ranges surrounding the courtyard are divided into thirteen houses and a corner chapel. Each house has an entrance door with either a flat or four-centre-arched head and boarded facing; four-centre-arched doors have long and short jamb stones. Most houses have two-light flat-mullioned windows to each floor, though those in the north range have single-light windows and those in the west range have simple small windows to each floor. Windows are mostly fixed or casements with leaded glass. Carved shields of arms beside each door indicate the alliances of various noble families with the Viponts and their successors the Cliffords. The arms of Lady Anne's two husbands, impaling her own, are displayed to either side of the inner courtyard entrance.

Internally, the houses follow a simple plan with a ground floor living room or kitchen and a first floor bedroom and bathroom. One inspected house contained a fire breast, a substantial chamfered ceiling beam, a simple staircase and the remains of a truncated roof truss tie-beam.

The chapel has a stone-flagged floor and a segmental plaster ceiling. It contains a simple seventeenth-century panelled reading desk in the north-east corner, and seventeenth-century boarded benches with simply shaped ends to the sides and shaped rails to the front. The walls are painted plaster with a series of monochrome wall paintings with red text references. The west wall displays the Ten Commandments within paired round-headed panels. The north and south walls contain texts set within rectangular panels, including the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes. The east wall bears representations of the Crown of Life and the Crucifix in glory above adoring cherubs of the Day of Judgement. The paintings to the rear and side walls are considered to be eighteenth-century replacements of almost obliterated originals, whilst the design of those to the east wall may be earlier.

The building has undergone only minor later alterations.