Almshouses of Tiverton and East Devon

We begin in Wellbrooke Street in Tiverton where there are Waldron's Almshouses with their adjoining chapel. They date from 1590 and were restored in 1987 (the chapel in 1990). The founder, Thomas Waldron, was a merchant. This area of the town, West Exe, was a centre for weaving and spinning from the early 16th century.

We continues across the Exe and left into St Peter's Street to visit Slee's almshouses, founded by George Slee in 1610 for six single women. The first floor gallery was originally open.

On the left of the almshouses is the Great House of St George, constructed 1603-14 for George Slee apparently after a substantial fire of 1598 which destroyed much of the town.

There are also former almshouses in Barrington St. The plaque reveals that this was "Blagdon's Charity. Destroyed by Fire and rebuilt 1833."

The final main sight, further down Gold St was Greenway's Almshouses, which like Waldron's have an attached chapel. They were founded in 1529. The stonework seems to have been renovated quite recently.There are two further parallel ranges behind dating from 1839 and 1889.

To the east of Tiverton is the Cullompton United Charity who manage a total of 9 Almshouses in the Parish of Cullompton. Below are  a pair of red brick houses known as Grants Homes. 

The Higher Street Almshouses consist of six one-bedroom terraced houses.

 

And the final one is a single-person bungalow: Weaver Wood,  

In Honiton, to the south, there seem to be only unclear traces of the St Margaret's almshouses,  Originally it was a leper hospital some distance from the town centre, the cottages were rebuilt as almshouses in the 16th century and then gothicised in the 19th century, presumably as a private house.