Listed Building record MDO8980 - Almshouses, 4 Milton Abbas

Almshouses, first built in the former town in 1674, re-erected on present site in 1779. Walls of brick and flint banding, with stone dressings; tiled roof with moulded coped gables and stone eaves courses. Coat of Arms in centre of gable with date stone 1779.

ALMSHOUSES 80630182, at the centre of the model village are single storied and have walls of banded brick and flint with stone dressings; the roofs are tiled, with stone-slate verges. The alms-houses were originally in the old village, having been built c. 1674 (will of John Tregonwell), and they were rebuilt on the present site in 1779. The transfer and preservation in 1779 of a 17th-century facade appears to be an early consequence of the Romantic movement. The building consists of a long range, gabled at the E. and W. ends, interrupted at the centre by a transverse hall with a slightly higher roof, gabled to N. and S. The S. front of the hall is of brick with ashlar dressings; it has three round-headed arches supported on two Tuscan columns and responds; the keystones are ornamented with faceted 'jewels'. Flanking this arcade, some what crude Corinthian columns on pedestals support a horizontal entablature with a plain frieze and an enriched cornice. The gable above is of brick with a moulded stone coping and has, in the tympanum, three round windows with moulded stone architraves, and a central stone panel embossed with a shield-of-arms of Milton impaling Sackville under a baron's coronet; a tablet below the shield records the re-erection of the building in 1779. One each side of the central hall are three tenements, each with a chamfered doorway with a four-centred head, and a square-headed chamfered and hollow-chamfered two-light casement window. The brick chimneystacks are set diagonally and in pairs. Inside, the hall originally had an attic but the floor has been removed, leaving exposed beams on shaped stone corbels. <1,2>

Almshouses Grade II*. <3,4>

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 197-198 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(8) ALMSHOUSES (80630182), at the centre of the model village and directly across the road from (2), are single storied and have walls of banded brick and flint with stone dressings; the roofs are tiled, with stone-slate verges (Plate 178). The almshouses were originally in the old village, having been built c. 1674 (will of John Tregonwell), and they were rebuilt on the present site in 1779. The transfer and preservation in 1779 of a 17th-century façade appears to be an early consequence of the Romantic movement. The building consists of a long range, gabled at the E. and W. ends, interrupted at the centre by a transverse hall with a slightly higher roof, gabled to N. and S. The S. front of the hall is of brick with ashlar dressings; it has three round-headed arches supported on two Tuscan columns and responds; the keystones are ornamented with faceted 'jewels'. Flanking this arcade, somewhat crude Corinthian columns on pedestals support a horizontal entablature with a plain frieze and an enriched cornice. The gable above is of brick with a moulded stone coping and has, in the tympanum, three round windows with moulded stone architraves, and a central stone panel embossed with a shield-of-arms of Milton impaling Sackville under a baron's coronet; a tablet below the shield records the re-erection of the building in 1779. On each side of the central hall are three tenements, each with a chamfered doorway with a four-centred head, and a square-headed chamfered and hollow-chamfered two-light casement window. The brick chimneystacks are set diagonally and in pairs. Inside, the hall originally had an attic but the floor has been removed, leaving exposed beams on shaped stone corbels. The hall fireplace has narrow stop-chamfered stone jambs and a mantelshelf on shaped wooden brackets. The fireplace surrounds in the tenements are similar to that of the hall.’

<2> DOE (HHR), 1954, List of Buildings of Special Historic or Architectural Interest: Blandford Rural District, 11 (Scheduling record). SDO17701.

<3> Department of the Environment, 1985, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: District of West Dorset, 44 (Scheduling record). SDO16361.

June 1985

<4> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 294 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205809 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 18 2022 10:26AM