| Norris Almshouses | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Sherwood Rise, Nottinghamshire, England |
| Coordinates | 52°58′14.09″N1°9′32.21″W / 52.9705806°N 1.1589472°W Coordinates: 52°58′14.09″N1°9′32.21″W / 52.9705806°N 1.1589472°W |
| Area | Berridge Road East |
| Built | 1892 |
| Built for | Mary Smith Norris |
| Restored | 1991 |
| Architect | Fothergill Watson |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
  Location of Norris Almshouses in Nottinghamshire | |
The Norris Almshouses were erected in 1893 on Berridge Road in Sherwood Rise, Nottinghamshire.
Sherwood Rise is a residential area in the north of the city of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. It is bordered by Carrington, Basford, Forest Fields and Sherwood.
They comprise a row of eight one-bedroom houses for Ladies, designed by the architect Fothergill Watson and paid for by Mary Smith Norris (1827-1909) in 1893 in memory of her brother John Norris.
The charity objectives were to provide a residence available for poor widows or spinsters or married couples of not less than 60 years of age resident in the City of Nottingham or within a distance of 6 miles therefrom. Preferences shall be given to persons so qualified who are members of the Church of England or some orthodox Protestant dissenting denomination.
The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.
A restoration in 1991 [1] included the manufacture of hand-cut bricks, a terracota dragon for the roof ridge and a specially commissioned weather cock and sundial.
A weather vane, wind vane, or weathercock is an instrument for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word vane comes from the Old English word fana meaning "flag".
A sundial is a device that tells the time of day when there is sunlight by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat plate and a gnomon, which casts a shadow onto the dial. As the Sun appears to move across the sky, the shadow aligns with different hour-lines, which are marked on the dial to indicate the time of day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, though a single point or nodus may be used. The gnomon casts a broad shadow; the shadow of the style shows the time. The gnomon may be a rod, wire, or elaborately decorated metal casting. The style must be parallel to the axis of the Earth's rotation for the sundial to be accurate throughout the year. The style's angle from horizontal is equal to the sundial's geographical latitude.
The almshouses are now managed by Nottingham Community Housing Association and the Norris Homes Charity (236206) which formerly managed the properties was wound up in 2008.
