Almshouses of the Vale of the White Horse District

 

                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We start this review of the Almshouses of the Vale of the White Horse District in Wantage, where there are three sets of Almshouses. The first are in Mill Street: a set of Almshouses dating from 1868-71, with what Pevsner describes as "vestigial Gothic detailing".

Then, in Post Office Lane, are the attractive Eagles' Close Almshouses of 1867, by Edward Dolby.

Nearby in Newbury Street are the Stiles Almshouses of 1680. Their founder was Robert Stiles, a merchant of Amsterdam: the plaque over the doorway describes his gift. It was Wantage's first named building.

Heading North East you come to the Almshouses in Church St,  Sutton Courtenay.  They were built in 1820 under the will of Francis Elderfield. It seems that the original six almshouses are now four.

Heading north we come to Fyfield where the The White Hart Inn once an almshouse and, according to Pevsnser, is a remarkable survivor of a chantry priest's house founded by Sir John Golafre in 1492.

Then on to Abingdon which has no less than five sets of Almshouses. Entering the churchyard of St Helen's, you are confronted by an extraordinary sight of three sets of them: "No other churchyard anywhere in England has anything like it" (Pevsner). On the right are Twitty's Almshouses of 1707.

In front of you, are the extraordinary Long Alley Almshouses, which date from 1446. The front doors are accessed via a long pentice, or cloister walk.

To the left are the Brick Alley Almshouses, built for Christ's Hospital in 1718. The giant arches carry first floor balconies.

Further along, in Ock St, are the fourth set of almshouses: Tompkins's Almshouses of 1733. The Dutch gables mark the ends of two ranges of houses which face each other across a small but pretty courtyard.

Finally, there is the out-of-the-way Vineyard for the final set of Almshouses, St John's Hospital, re-established here in 1801.

Chippenham and Lacock Abbey

                                                                The Yelde Hall, Chippenham

Another walk with my friend Merv, on a very grey day. I thought I would start this blog with a picture of the fine Yelde Hall (or Guildhall), built in the15th century. It was variously a meeting place for the Council, a public meeting room, a courthouse, a gaol and a Tourist office among other things. It seems unclear what it should be used for now.

We parked near the station and headed downhill to turn left at The Bridge. We were quite taken by the imposing building on the corner, for all that it looks rather run down.

We headed on into the High Street to reach the Town Hall. It was built in 1833 and enlarged in 1850. The extension, the Neeld Hall, is on the right and housed a corn exchange and Cheese Market. Now the Council's Customer Services occupies the ground floor and the remainder is a community and arts centre.

Coming into the Market Place we encountered the Butter Market (where milk and cheese were sold). It has a surprising history. The original Buttercross stood at the current location of Barclays Bank. In 1889 it was sold and moved to Castle Combe Manor House, where it was used as a garden gazebo. In 1995, the Buttercross was re-erected in the town by Chippenham Civic Society. It looks well in its latest home.

Further into the Market Place is the imposing Angel Hotel.

A little further on we reached St Andrews Church, which Pevsner describes as "quite an impressive church", even though the upper parts of the tower date from 1633 and the interior was rebuilt in 1975-8. 

Opposite the church are these buildings which we first took for almshouses. It is in fact a former church hall, now refurbished and renamed as King Alfred Hall.

At right angles with the hall, and beyond the church, is St Mary's Street has a succession of interesting buildings: in succession a Georgian mansion, a fine red brick and then "one of only two half-timbered houses in Chippenham worth mentioning" (Pevsner of course; the other house is not mentioned again).

We decided it was now time to walk to Lacock. So far as I could see from the OS map it was a relatively straight line from Chippenham to Lacock. I had got it into my head that the route involved a redundant railway line and all we had to do was to get off along the right path. This proved to be much more lengthy and difficult that we could have imagined but after several several false starts we walked across open land to pass the first definitive milestone: Rowden Manor. 

We then had a struggle to find the right path past the Sewage Works, but eventually emerged on the right path to then skirt the Lackham Agricultural College. We passed an interesting WW2 pillar box - they are not usually square ...

... and carried on to reach the fine bridge at Raybridge.

But by now it was raining and when we reached the outsides of the village we sought the sanctuary of a pub. Later we walked along the wide street towards the Abbey.

We entered the Abbey precincts, passing the rather lovely archway. Lacock was founded in 1229 for Augustinian canonesses, led by a strong woman by the name of Ela, who became the first abbess and reigned until 1261. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and a little late the house passed to the Talbot family who kept it until1958.  In the 19th century it was the location of W H Fox Talbot's pioneering work in photography.

Before going through the archway we looked at the large and rather picturesque courtyard ...

... and then passed the Great Hall, sadly closed on this day (no reason given).

We walked round the edge of the buildings and into the rather lovely cloister ...

... on the left is the impressive Chapter House.

We completed our visit by looking at the interesting exhibition of Fox Talbot's work. And then decided, that as it was raining, we would get a cab back to Chippenham rather than walk.

Map: Explorer 156 (Chippenham & Bradford-on-Avon.

Distance: The walk from Chippenham to Lacock was supposed to be 3 miles, but Merv's electronic route map suggested nearer 5.

Conditions: Grey and later wet.

Rating: four stars. Chippenham and Lacock were interesting and enjoyable.

Winterborne Zelston

St Mary's church, Winterborne Zelston

For today's walk we drove from Poole to the village of Winterborne Zelston. On the way along the A31 we passed the longest brick wall we have ever seen, enlivened by three splendid entrance gates. It turns out to have been the Drax wall which surrounds Charborough Park (at least on the road side). Built in 1841 by the Drax family, it is said to be 3 miles long and to contain 2 million bricks. The present owner is Sir Richard Drax MP (for South Dorset) who was born Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.

We parked by the church and admired the stone tower and the nice display of snowdrops. We headed aw`y from the church and turned left to follow the well-marked path heading west across fields to pass through a farm. Soon we passed the large and imposing farm at Winterbourne Tomson ...

... and then made a detour towards the farm to see the beautiful 12th century church of St Andrew, which was restored in the 1920s. The plain apse was very striking.

We retraced our steps and continued westward to reach Muston Lane (a track really) and made a detour left to get a glimpse of Anderson Manor, built in 1622.

We walked past the Manor and crossed a delightful stream ...

... to reach the 13th century St Michael's church, largely of 1622 like the Manor. It had new windows in 1889 and is now a private chapel. The porch was a bit of a let-down.
 

We returned to Muston Lane and headed north, and then east to join a section of Roman road which continues as far as Badbury Rings.

We turned left through an area of woodland and then right to follow a field path and then a lane to return to the village.

Conditions: bright and sunny.

Distance: 4 miles.

Rating: 4 stars.

Map: Explorer 117 (Cerne Abbas & Bere Regis).

Horton Cross, New Town & Chalbury

 
We are on a visit to Poole and found this interesting walk north of Wimborne Minster in one of our numerous walk books. We parked opposite the pub and headed along the away from the Horton Inn to the north west.  We turned left after crossing a bridge ...

... and followed a farm track which led us to the delightful Crichel Mill.

We continued south along a field edge with a narrow waterway on our right.

 At the end of the field edge we crossed a couple of bridges, bearing right and entering some woodland. We admired a fine display of Snowdrops.

We passed through a white kissing gate and could soon make out Crichel House through the trees and across Crichel Lake.  

The handsome House is largely 18th century in appearance, the original Tudor house having been largely burned down in the 17th century. Various additions have been made since. 

We reached the drive of Crichel House and turned left along the road to reach the rather fine Gatehouse.

 We now turned sharp left and walked past the houses of this small village. I liked the delicate date stone on the gable end of one the houses.

We then skirted a newish housing development (foreshadowed in our walk book) on either side of a watercourse.

We followed a track to reach the B3078 road. At this point we were feeling a bit weary (we had gone off the planned route a few times - a consequence of the very sketchy sketch map). We decided to walk along the road back to Horton Cross. Before long we realised that this road was rather busy and dangerous, so we turned right off it and headed up a lane towards Chalbury. At the top we turned left (by chance rejoining the walk route) heading towards Chalbury Farm.

Quite soon we spotted, on the right, the wonderful Horton Tower which we had last encountered in 2011. Here is a link.

After passing the farmhouse we walked across two massive fields - mercifully with marked-out paths. This brought us back to the Horton Inn.

Source: Pub Walks in Dorset by Mike Power, 1997 (!), but not much seems to have changed.

Map: Shaftesbury & Cranborne Chase, Explorer 118.

Conditions: bright and sunny, though rather cool.

Distance: about 5 miles.

Almshouses of West Berkshire and Reading (apart from Newbury)

 

                              

                                                    Estbury Almshouses, Lambourn

This post covers all of the Almshouses to be found in West Berkshire and Reading, excluding Newbury. Most are still in operation as Almshouses, while others have become ordinary dwellings, albeit with historical features such as a tablet.

The Estbury Almshouses are situated to the right of the parish church. The almshouses were founded in 1502 and re-founded (i.e rebuilt) by Henry Hippisley in 1852.

 

 

If you go past the Estbury Almshouses on your right and turn right down a narrow lane you will find on the right the Hardretts Almshouses, re-founded by Jacob Hardrett in 1625. There is a sign over the door for Hardretts Almshouses, but it is hard to imagine that they are still use as such. The parish church can be glimpsed behind.

 

All that remains of St Peter's Almshouses in Brimpton is this handsome gateway. The almshouses were founded by the Countess of Falmouth.

 

 

Donnington, just north of Newbury, has the splendid Donnington Hospital ...

The hospital was built as a square around a courtyard in 1602 and restored and re-opened in 1822. The enormous chimneys are a dramatic feature.

As you walk down to the village there is another building on the right that looks like it might be an almshouse. Further investigation reveals that it was Abberbury Close (1938), which is also owned by the Donnington Hospital Trust.

Interestingly, the Trust was founded in 1393 by the same Sir Richard de Abberbury who built Donnington  castle. It is the tenth oldest almshouse foundation in the country. The Trust also now looks after Jesus Hospital in Bray (which will be covered in my post about East Berkshire Almshouses) and the more recent Abberbury Close.

 

Heading further east to Aldermaston, we reach  Dixon's Almshouses in Church Road. They were founded by the Rev Robert Dixon in 1706 and improved in 1904 and 1926. They are now private (or perhaps estate) houses.

The final almshouses covered in this post are on the outskirts of Reading in New Lane Hill. 

They are the rather lovely Mary Lyne Almshouses. They were founded in 1832 by Mrs Elizabeth May and Miss Mary Lyne for six poor women, three from Burghfield Parish and three from Tilehurst. They have been completely reshaped inside and are now privately owned.

 

The remaining ones are Vachel Almshouses in Rose Walk, Castle St, in the centre of Reading close to the Oracle shopping centre. They were originally founded by Sir Thomas Vachel in 1634 for the maintenance of six poor men. The original buildings were demolished and rebuilt in 1867 and modernised in 1904 and 1926.

 

 

Note: I believe this is a full set of Almshouses in East Berkshire, but additional information or errors to be corrected would be most welcome. Click on the Comments option at the bottom of the post.