Almshouses of West Oxfordshire

Near to St Mary's church in Witney, after you have admired the church spire, are the Almshouses. They were originally built in 1724 for six widows of blanket-makers (the town's most important industry) and rebuilt in 1868 by William Wilkinson of Oxford. They make an attractive group.

Turning right into Bridge St and right again into Oxford Road you come to Townsend's Almshouses of 1827.

The plaque reveals that they were built and endowed by William Townsend, a native of the town, now a Haberdasher in London. They were intended for "six aged unmarried women" and designed in a rather austere style.

Heading east you come to Burford which has four sets of Almshouses. In the middle of the town is a street called Guildenford where you find Castle's Almshouses, dating from 1726. Pevsner describes them of being "of no architectural merit" and I have to agree. 

 

On the opposite side of the main road are Briggs's Almshouses in Sweeps Lane. They were endowed by Katherine M Briggs in 1966. Briggs was an eminent folklorist and long-term Burford resident. The building follows the Cotswold vernacular tradition, with uncoursed rubblestone and a stone slate roof. Features include a pair of three-light stone-mullioned windows under a drip moulding, and doorways with plain Tudor arches.

 

But continuing into Church Lane brought me to the Great (or Warwick) Almshouses, which were much more meritorious.

 

The plaque of 1828 reveals that the Almshouses were founded in 1457 by Richard, Earl of Warwick, but apparently the real founder was a local burgess and wool merchant named Henry Bishop. They were rebuilt in 1826 but still look convincing medieval to my eye.

Returning to the High St, I headed uphill to find Price's Almshouses which date from 1896 and were specified to be built in an "Elizabethan Style". There are three cottages, with the entrances to two of them at the side of the main block.

 

Going east now you come to Caroline Court in Woodstock, built in 1970 by Cottsway Housing Association. They have a pleasingly traditional appearance.

Northwards to Glympton, where the Almshouses were built in 1949, probably (says Pevsner) by Trenwith Wills.

Then west again to reach Spelsbury, whose Almshouses were built in 1688 by John Carry.

 

The final stop in West Oxfordshire is in Chipping Norton where the Almshouses bear the inscription "The work and gift of Henry Cornish, gent 1640".