Building record 0421800000 - DRAKE'S ALMSHOUSES, HIGH STREET

Dimensions - Length 22m, Width 15m.
ON S SIDE OF HIGH STREET AMERSHAM BUILT 1617 BY SIR WM. DRAKE FOR 6 POOR WIDOWS. BRICK WITH STONE WINDOW-CASES AND DOORWAYS. 6 1-STOREY TENEMENTS OF TWO ROOMS AROUND 3 SIDES OF COURTYARD (B2,B4).
ARMS OF FOUNDER OVER FRONT DOOR (B3).
SEE FULL ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION (B5).
Grade II+. 1657. Red brick, stone window and door dressings, old tile roof with moulded brick cornice. Grouped round three sides of a garden court with brick wall on fourth side. One storey, two and 3-light diamond leaded casements with stone mullions and arched heads. Doorways with shallow arched heads. Central stone coped gable with inscribed tablet on fluted consoles surmounted by open pediment containing coat-of-arms in tymparium. Moulded brick floorband, three arched openings. Side gables have dummy brick round-headed archways with impost bands and keyblocks, surrounds of Roman Doric pilasters and entablature. A similar archway in centre of part brick wall, leading to courtyard. Side and rear elevations each have two large chimney stacks with tiled offsets and moulded sailing courses. Gabled centre to rear elevation with three pointed arched openings. RCHM I p 7 MON 29 (B7).



[SU 9545 9741] Almshouses [T.I.] (B8)

Almshouses, six, of one storey, endowed and built in 1657 by Sir William Drake, Bt., of Shardeloes, as recorded by a tablet on the north wall. The walls are of brick, the roofs tiled, and the building is a good dated example of 17th-century brickwork. The houses, two in each wing, from three sides of a courtyard, with a wall and gateway on the fourth. The gabled ends of the east and west wings face the street, in each is a large round-headed recess, flanked by shallow pilasters supporting a moulded entablature, all in brick. The central gateway is of similar detail, but the head has been restored. [A0/59/339/2] [Included is a detailed description of courtyard and outer elevations.] (B5).

Lipscomb gives date as 1617 followed by R. Gibbs, Bucks. Miscellany, 1891, p.339. V.C.H., 3, 1925, p.141 has 1657 (B2).

"Sir William Drake's Almshouses, 1657. Red brick, stone window dressings, old tile roof with moulded brick cornice. Grouped round three sides of a cobbled court with red brick wall on fourth side, 1 storey, 2 and 3-light lattice casements with stone mullions and surrounds and pointed arches. Doorways also with pointed arches. Central stone coped gable with inscribed tablet on fluted consoles and surmounted by open pediment containing Coat of Arms in tympanum. Side gables have dummy brick round-headed archways with impost bands and keyblocks; surround of Roman Doric pilasters and entablature. In centre of brick wall similar archway, slightly restored, leads into courtyard. Grade II." [Refers to authority (2); V.C.H. & N.B.R.] (B9).

Almshouses - extent marked on Sp. 25" and 25" A.M. Six tenements for poor & aged widows, as described by preceding authorities. G.P. A0/60/49/6 : 5 (central wing) from N. 7: General view from N.E. (B10).