Listed Building record MDO2347 - Ss John Baptist and John Evangelist Almshouse, Half Moon Street, Sherborne

Augustinian and Benedictine hospital prior to 1404, then in use as an almshouse. In 1546 it is referred to as a leper house, which may indicate its original use. Most of the building dates to the 15th century, with later alterations and additions including those of 1865. Listed.

[ST 6377 1640] Almshouses [GT] (5)

Almshouses of St John the Baptist & John the Evangelist (8) date of foundation unknown, but it was an Austin hospital on this site which passed to the Benedictines c. 1404-5.

The hospital was refounded c. 1437 for 20 brethren. In 1547 it was called, probably erroneously a house of leprosy, it was retained or refounded after the dissolution. (8)

The walls are of rubble and the roofs are covered with stone slats, the chapel within was completed in 1442, and the building completed in 1448.

The building is an unusually complete example of a 15 c. almshouse on a normal plan following that of the monastic infirmary. (11)

In 1865 many additions and alterations were made to the structure. (3) (1, 3, 5- 8, 11)

The almhouses are in excellent condition, and are as described and depicted above except that the height of the chimneys has been reduced and the dormer window removed.

Modern additions to the N. of the original building have extended the almshouse premises. (9)

The Almshouse building accounts, 1440-4. (10)

Hospital of Saints John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. Grade I. (13,15)

<1> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1870, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 4, 294-296 (Plates) (Monograph). SDO17392.

<3> Wildman, W B, 1902, A Short History of Sherborne, 175-89 (Monograph). SDO18001.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 scale, 1938 (Map). SWX1197.

[ST 6377 1640] Almshouses [GT]

<6> 1950, Notes and queries for Somerset and Dorset Vol 25, 90 (Article in serial). SDO18008.

<7> Fowler, J, 1951, Mediaeval Sherborne (Monograph). SDO10392.

<7.1> Cassell & Co Ltd, Cassell's Gazetteer (Monograph). SDO18009.

<7.2> F R Heath, 1912, Dorset, 247-8 (Monograph). SDO18010.

<8> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 211-12 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(7) ALMSHOUSE OF SS. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND JOHN THE EVANGELIST (Plates 180, 181) stands 60 yards S.W. of the abbey church. The walls are of rubble and the roofs are covered with stone slates. The almshouse was refounded and enlarged in 1438, the chapel was finished in 1442 and the building completed in 1448. At this time the building consisted of a chapel with a two-storeyed hall to the W.; the hall may have been divided so as to leave a dining-room at the W. end; a kitchen of uncertain date was pulled down when the 19th-century additions were made to the N. of the building.
The building is an unusually complete example of a 15th-century almshouse on a normal plan following that of the monastic infirmary; the chancel forms the chapel and the nave the hall of the establishment, the latter commonly containing the cubicles of the inmates. The triptych and glass are noteworthy.
The Chapel (12½ ft. by 14 ft.) has in the E. and S. walls a partly restored 15th-century window of three cinque-foiled lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred head with moulded reveals and label; the S. window has stops carved as half-angels. In the W. wall is a 15th-century arch, moulded and two-centred and springing from moulded responds each with an attached shaft with moulded base and capital carved with paterae. The roof is of boarded barrel form and of two main and four subsidiary bays sub-divided into panels by moulded ribs with foliated and shield-bosses at the intersections; the shields are modern. Under the W. arch is an oak screen (Plate 181) of three tiers of cinquefoil-headed panels with foliated spandrels, moulded posts and rails and a cornice with running foliage; the lowest range of panels is closed but the two upper are open; the doorway is similarly treated but with narrower panels, two in each fold of the doors themselves and four above. In the head of the E. window are crowns, roses and suns in 15th-century glass and some fragments. The S. window is mostly filled with original glass (Plate 17); the three main figures are of the Virgin and Child, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist; in the tracery is the Agnus Dei, the initials Ihe and the symbols of the Evangelists; in the heads of the lights are crowns and roses; below the figures are fragments and a shield with the emblems of the Passion. The triptych behind the altar was no doubt purchased for the hospital soon after it was painted; it is probably a work of the Cologne school and dates from the last quarter of the 15th-century; the middle panel (Plate 179) has a large group of the Raising of Lazarus with a city in the background; the right wing (Plate 178) has the Casting out of the devil from the dumb man with a small scene in the top right-hand corner of the Giving of sight to the blind man; the left wing (Plate 178) has the Raising of the widow's son and in the top left-hand corner is the Raising of Jairus' daughter; the backs (Plate 177) of the wings are painted with pairs of figures of St. Paul and St. James the Greater and St. Thomas and St. Peter. The 17th-century communion-table has turned legs and moulded rails.
The Main Block (60 ft, by 20½ ft.) has, at the E. end of the S. wall, a doorway with moulded jambs and two-centred arch in a square head with a label and shields and foliage in the spandrels; the door is old and nail-studded with strap-hinges; flanking the door-head are partly restored niches with cinque-foiled ogee and crocketed heads and flanking shafts with pinnacles; the brackets have carved paterae. Further W. are seven ground-floor windows; the first five are of a single pointed light in a square head with a label; the heads were probably cinque-foiled but the points have been cut away; the sixth window is of four square-headed lights with a label and the westernmost window is of two pointed lights in a square head with a label. The upper floor has also seven windows; the five eastern are single lights and the two western are of two lights and all are similar to the one and two-light windows below. In the N. wall the ground-floor has three single-light windows similar to those in the S. wall; towards the E. and W. ends of the wall are doorways with moulded jambs and two-centred heads and both are hung with old doors. On the first floor there are two single-light windows with cinque-foiled cusping set against the pointed head of the light; there are also two doorways with four-centred heads. The ground-floor has moulded ceiling-beams forming seven bays in the length and two in the width; between the third and fourth bays is a 16th-century screen or partition with chamfered posts, sill and top-rail; the central doorway, not in situ, has a segmental-pointed head with foliage-spandrels and is flanked by small buttresses; the upper part of the screen is modern. The room W. of the screen is now used as the dining-room. The upper floor is now cut up into cubicles by modern partitions; at the E. end is a gallery looking into the chapel, with a modern balustrade; the two western bays formed the old Board-room. The roof is of seven bays with collar-beam trusses, curved braces forming two-centred arches and curved wind-braces. The staircase outside the N. wall is of 17th-century origin and has turned balusters and turned newels with ballterminals; it has been made up with modern work. The fittings include some 17th-century chairs and tables.'

<9> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 15-JUL-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<10> 1968-73, Notes and queries for Somerset and Dorset 29, 74-78 (Article in serial). SWX2822.

<11> Knowles, D, and Hadcock, R N, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales, 305 (Monograph). SDO17348.

<12> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB35/01222 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of the door on the south side of St John's Almshouse in Sherborne

<13> Newman, J, and Pevsner, N, 1972, The Buildings of England: Dorset, 380-1 (Monograph). SWX1290.

<14> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24644 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of a group of windows on the north side of St John's Almshouse in Sherborne

<15> Department of the Environment, 1985, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Urban District of Sherborne, 29 (Scheduling record). SDO16378.

DOE (HHR) Dorset. Urban District of Sherborne Oct 1973 3

<16> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24645 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of the door on the south side of St John's Almshouse in Sherborne

<17> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199464 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 1:09PM