Perry and Dawes Almshouses

 

The three distinctive foundations, collectively known as Perry and Dawes Hospital, now Perry & Dawes Almshouses comprise the buildings:

            (a)        Hugh Perry’s Foundation

                        The block fronting Church Street, and the Chapel.

            (b)        General Foundation

                        The block on the south quadrangle backing on to the side of The Falcon                                    Hotel.

            (c)        Thomas Dawes’ Hospital

                        The block at the rear (east) of the quadrangle.

            The oldest parts of these Almshouses, fronting Church Street and the Chapel were built in 1638.  Funded by a legacy in the will of Hugh Perry (1630), an Alderman and Mercer of the City of London who died in 1634.  The former Wottonian left £300, ‘for an Almshouse to be laid with gardens, etc. as the   Trustees should think fit, for six poor men and six poor women.’

            He also left funds to provide £8 a year ‘ for their shoes, stockings, shirts and smocks’; £5 a year ‘for wood and coals’; ‘Twenty shillings apiece for the Almsfolk on the four usual feasts of the Church plus £12 a year for them’; £8 for an Usher (whose duties were to teach in the free school as well as to read Divine Service daily in the Chapel every morning at 11 o’clock).  He also left further sums for endowment purposes. Part of the main legacy was used to purchase ‘messuages and other tenements in the Town then called Harsfield Court’, the site of the present buildings, with the rest of the funds used for constructing the buildings.

            Another local benefactor, Thomas Dawes, left property for the benefit of the poor of the town which, following agreement and confirmation by a decree in Chancery in 1722, was sold and used to lease a site, ‘for a hospital for six poor people or families.’ 

           A lease dated 19 June 1723, refers to ‘all of those six new houses or rooms and the ground whereon they stand, at the lower end of the court or yard belonging to Mr Perry’s Hospital, formerly Harsfield Court in the Church Lane, and also six pieces of garden plots there set out, with the use of the Chapel, well house of office and ways, etc., belonging to the same hospital’.  These appear to be the end part of the wing at the far side, behind the Chapel together with the rear garden.  An old tenement and stable were included in the Dawes’ property and is probably the site of the present Warden’s Cottage.

            A parish book entry of 13 October 1714 showed that the feoffes (Trustees) had earlier decided to demolish another Almshouse in the town which had cottages adjoining and was described in a deed of 18 November 1654, as ‘being near Court Mead and Old Town House’.  This enabled the building of a charity school, now the former Blue Coat School in Culverhay, opposite the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin.

            That Almshouse was eventually replaced by additional buildings connecting the Perry Almshouse with the Dawes Almhouse.  Then called the ‘General Hospital’, it was funded from several sources, mainly additional gifts from Hugh Perry of ‘estates’, by the Trustees of these original almshouses, jointly with the Perry    Trustees and the Dawes Trustees.

            Thus, 30 Almspersons could be accommodated together with a matron.                            

             According to E S Lindley (Men and Affairs in a Cotswold Wool Town), in 1876 earth closets were provided, there having been only privies before, into which chamber pots would have been emptied.  In turn, in 1910, these were replaced by an annexe behind the Dawes ‘hospital’ which contained WCs and two washrooms.  In the early 1950s part of the improvements involved reducing the original thirty quarters to twenty-two, providing eight bathrooms with WCs in place of the old annexe. Further work in the 1970s as the latest welfare standards were introduced, meant that the Trustees were faced with either complete modernisation or closure.  This was carried out sympathetically as befits Grade II Listed Buildings. The results were nine apartments, each having a sitting room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, (several being suitable for couples) together with a Common Room, Laundry and small office for the Clerk to the Trustees.

            Originally, individual charities were administered by private trustees named by the donor in his will or the trust indenture.  An Indenture of 1767, brought these charities under the administration of a body of local persons as trustees, administered by the Mayor and Aldermen.  Following a survey by Her Majesty’s Commissioners in 1829, this was further clarified and settled by indentures dated 18 February 1850, and 4 October 1875.  The first Charity Commission Scheme for these charities was made on the 15 February 1884.  Upon the dissolution of the Corporation in 1890, they took the title, ‘Trustees of the Wotton-under-Edge General Charities’.                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                             Chapel(left) and part of the 'Dawes' building                                         

            The Perry and Dawes Almshouses are non-denominational which is why they are administered by a secular body —Trustees of the Wotton-under-Edge General Charities who are responsible for those Town Charities which are not of religious or other exclusive application. Four Trustees are appointed by Wotton-under-Edge Town Council, the other seven as Foundation Trustees who are members of the community. The Warden and Deputy Warden are paid an Honorarium, but all other posts are voluntary.  In past times, the Clerk to the Trustees was also paid an honorarium, but today, the post is a voluntary one.

 

 

Chapel interior

 

 

 

 

 

Memorial windows in the Chapel, in modern stained glass to benefactors Hugh Perry (l) and Thomas Dawes (r)

 

Bibliography:

Lindley, E.S.  

Wotton-under-Edge, Men and Affairs of a Cotswold Wool Town,

Amberley Publishing, 2008