St John's Hospice

St John's Hospice is a building of group value, dating back to the 17th century, with origins possibly earlier. The front is built of part-coursed rubble and features a three-window arrangement, distinguished by a lower, projecting cross range that fronts the street. This section was widened and raised in the early 17th century. The building is roofed with slate, punctuated by red brick chimney stacks. A central roof dog leg rises to the right over a pointed arch entrance, while a vertical joint to the left indicates the later addition of a guard room, likely required when the hospital was established. The windows are mostly modern cross-frame types, but retain hood moulds characteristic of the 16th and 17th centuries, with later brick lintels under the eaves. A rubble right-end wall has small windows and a blocked doorway; the rear is also of rubble, with a cross range and a modern opening within a broad segmental arch.

Inside, access is via a passage with two-tier seating, leading to a blocked doorway to the guard room. The interior retains significant original detail, including stop-chamfered and moulded ceiling beams, dressed stone fireplaces and doorways, and stone flagged floors. A cross-passage has paired, round-arched, stop-chamfered openings leading to service rooms. The whitewashed rubble hall to the left features a timber lintel over the fireplace and a reeded 19th-century cupboard. Two weathered medieval stone plaques, originally on the front of the building – one depicting an eagle – have been retained. A winding stone staircase with small pointed arch lights leads to the first floor, where a main room, featuring similar detailing, is situated above the cross-passage and service rooms. Further features include paired round-arched, stop-chamfered openings in the north-east wall, a similar doorway over the entrance, and a square-headed, voussoired opening leading to a room above the hall, which has an open two-bay roof. The floor levels on the north-west side have been altered, with a lower room located to the rear.