Description

WALSALL

1690/0/10051 WEDNESBURY ROAD
27-MAY-05 Henry Boys Almshouses

II
Group of 12 almshouses arranged around a 3-sided courtyard. 1887. F.E.F.Bailey. Red Flemish bond brick with painted and terracotta dressings and a plain tile and fishscale-tiled roof with decorative ridge tiles and finials. "Queen Anne" style. Single-storey; each house has 4 rooms opening off a central corridor and a rear wing containing a lavatory and coal-store. This latter was converted into a bathroom in 1976. All of the houses open from the courtyard front, or from each of the wings. Each house has 3 bays with a central 4-panel door with upper glazed panel having stained-glass quarries. These have segmental heads and keystones. To one side of each door are 2 paired windows with keystones and to the other side is a square bay window with triple light window and a hipped roof. The distribution of these elements [to right or left of the doorway] alternates according to the symmetrical arrangement of the whole. At the centre is a gable above two joined square bay windows with an armigerous overthrow to the apex with supporters above a rectangular panel which reads; "THESE ALMSHOUSES / WERE ERECTED AND ENDOWED BY / HENRY BOYS / A.D.1886". At either side of this centrepiece and in the projecting wings are set the 12 almshouses and the pattern is uniform except to the 2 ends of the projecting wings which each have a central door of the established pattern with an open pedimental surround, supported on brackets. At either side are projecting square bays with 3-light windows which are crowned by gables which have a cartouche at centre which bears the entwined initials H and B.
Interior: Each house has a central passage with a tiled floor and some retain the fitted cupboards to the side ot the hearth in the living room and the cast iron hearths. The former lavatories and coal stores to the rear wings were all converted in 1976 to provide bathrooms and much of the rear fenestration was altered and replaced at that time and since.
History: The Victoria County History for Staffordshire records "By deed of 1887 Henry Boys, a Walsall brick manufacturer, settled in trust twelve alms houses on the corner of Wednesbury Road and Tasker Street with an endowment of £4,000. There were to be 24 inmates, aged over sixty, sober, and industrious; each house was to be occupied by a married couple or by two single persons of the same sex. No clergyman of any sect was to be a trustee. By his will, proved in 1894, Boys left a further endowment of £4,000."
This group of almshouses is designed by a notable local architect, F.E.F.Bailey, and survives in a largely-original and complete condition. Its luxurious use of brick and terracotta decoration served as an advertisement for Henry Boys stock in trade and it's retention of fragile elements such as finials and ridge tiles and a complete set of original front doors is remarkable.
Source: Victoria County History, Staffordshire, Vol. XVII, p.268.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671995

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
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  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
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  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
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  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)