Listed Building record MDR821 - Owfield's Almshouses, Church Street, Ashbourne

Grade II* listed almshouses founded in 1640 and erected shortly afterwards. It has much the same characteristics as Pegg's Almshouses [SMR 321]. They comprise of a single storey and attics; the attic storey with three gabled dormers added in 1848. The ground floor has five windows, with the three centre ones having coupled lights with mullions. Four-centred arches, two of which are surmounted by panels bearing Latin inscriptions. There are clustered stone stacks, and a tiled roof with alternating double courses of curved and plain tiles, and coped gabled ends. The almshouses were restored in 1848. No's 38, 40 and 72, together with Pegg's Almshouses, Owlfield's Almshouses, The Mansion, the Summerhouse and the cobbled pavements form a group with the parish Church of St Oswald and the churchyard gate piers, gates and walls. (1) In 1610 Roger Owfield, a London fishmonger of Ashbourne origin, gave money towards the building of 8 almshouses on Church Street. Twenty years later Thomas Owfield gave a sum of money to complete them and to purchase land for their endowment. (3) Owfield's Almshouses on Church Street consist of a low range of stone buildings along the street frontage. They were funded in 1610 and completed in 1630. An upper storey was added in similar style in 1848. (4)