| St Margaret's Almshouses | |
|---|---|
 St Margaret's Almshouses | |
 | |
  Shown in Somerset | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Taunton, England |
| Coordinates | 51°1′3″N3°5′14″W / 51.01750°N 3.08722°W Coordinates: 51°1′3″N3°5′14″W / 51.01750°N 3.08722°W |
| Organisation | |
| Type | Leper colony |
| History | |
| Opened | c.1180 |
| Closed | Early 16th century |
| Links | |
St Margaret's Almshouses are part of a 12th-century leper colony in Taunton, Somerset, England.
The building was founded as a leper hospital in the 12th century, Somerset Historical Environmental Records dates it to between 1174 and 1180 AD. Records of Taunton Priory describe it as The Chapel of St Margaret 'infirmorum' in 1180. [1]
Glastonbury Abbey acquired the patronage of the hospital in 1280 and Abbot Beere rebuilt it as almshouses in the early 16th century. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the associated chapel was demolished. [1]
From 1612 to 1938 the building continued to be used as almshouses, cared for by a local parish. In the late 1930s it was converted into a hall of offices for the Rural Community Council and accommodation for the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen. The designer of those renovations was William Worrall of Glastonbury. [2] From the late 1980s and the building then stood empty and then, in the early 1990s the thatched roof was destroyed by fire and the building suffered from vandalism and neglect until the Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust with Falcon Rural Housing purchased and restored it using, as faithfully as possible, the original architecture and building materials. [3] After restoration it was purchased by Falcon Rural Housing as four dwellings of social housing. [4]
It is a long freestanding single storey building, built mostly of local shillet stone. On the front of the building is a stone tablet with the arms of Abbot Bere of Glastonbury, the original restorer of the building. It is a grade II* listed building. [5]
Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.
Taunton is a town in Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastery. Taunton Castle, risen in the Anglo-Saxon period, later became a priory. The Normans built a castle that belonged to the Bishops of Winchester; reconstructed parts of the inner ward now house the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. During the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck marched here an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England at Taunton in a rebellion defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Great Hall of the Castle. The Grand Western Canal reached Taunton in 1839 and the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1842. Today it includes Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset County Cricket Club and the headquarters of 40 Commando, Royal Marines. Taunton flower show has been held in Vivary Park since 1866. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is in Admiralty Way.
Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction.
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Durston is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the A361 road 5 miles (8.0 km) north east of Taunton and 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Bridgwater in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The parish lies on undulating ground between the lowest slopes of the Quantock Hills and the valley of the River Tone at the Curry and Hay Moors. The parish has a population of 136.
Tolland is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 9 miles (14.5 km) north west of Taunton, between the Brendon Hills and Quantock Hills, in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The parish has a population of 81.
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Muchelney Abbey is an English Heritage property in the village of Muchelney in the Somerset Levels, England. The site consists of ruined walls showing the layout of the abbey buildings constructed from the 7th to 16th and the remaining intact Abbott's House. It is next to the parish church in which some of the fabric of the abbey has been reused.
The Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust (SBPT) works to save the architectural heritage of Somerset, England.
Meare is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) north west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Westhay.
East Brent is a village and civil parish, on the eastern edge of a hill that dominates the surrounding level countryside—Brent Knoll—close to the M5 motorway, 5 miles (8 km) west of Axbridge, in the Sedgemoor district of the county of Somerset, in the south-west of England. The parish includes the hamlets of Rooksbridge, where the A38 road crosses the Mark Yeo and Edingworth.
The Grade I listed buildings in Somerset, England, demonstrate the history and diversity of its architecture. The ceremonial county of Somerset consists of a non-metropolitan county, administered by Somerset County Council, which is divided into five districts, and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the breakup of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.
Gray's Almshouses is a terrace of almshouses in Taunton, Somerset, England, founded in 1635 by the wealthy cloth-merchant Robert Gray, whose monument survives in the Church of St Mary Magdalene. The building is one of the oldest surviving in Taunton and is one of the earliest brick buildings in the county. The Almshouses were designed to provide accommodation for six men and ten women and for a reader who was to act as chaplain and schoolmaster. It is a Grade I listed building as designated by English Heritage. Following renovation in the late twentieth century it now comprises sheltered accommodation of nine flats for the elderly.
The Abbot's Fish House in Meare, Somerset, England, was built in the 14th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is the only surviving monastic fishery building in England.
The Manor Farmhouse in Meare, Somerset, England, was built in the 14th century as the summer residence of the Abbots from Glastonbury Abbey and is now a farmhouse. Along with its outbuildings the farmhouse has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
Richard Beere was an English Benedictine abbot of Glastonbury, known as a builder for his abbey, as a diplomat and scholar, and a friend of Erasmus.
St Joseph's Convent is a complex of 18th- and 19th-century buildings in Taunton, Somerset, which were primarily used as a Roman Catholic convent, first by the Franciscans, and then Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy. The buildings were sold out of the Catholic church in 1976, and were redeveloped as residential flats in 2005. The main building is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, while the boundary walls on the west side are Grade II listed.
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William Edwin Worrall (1877-1940) was a Staffordshire-born designer of fabric, pottery, glass and stoneware. He was the brother of the watercolour painter Thomas Frederick Worrall and shared similar artistic ability.