Building record 179/48/0 - Almshouses, built by J.Tollemache, 118-128 Welsh Row

<1> Hall J, 1883, A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich or Wich-Malbank in the County Palatine of Chester, p372 (Book). SCH80.

James Hall, writing in 1883, records the following account of the Tollemache/Willbraham Almshouses:-
'Sir Roger Wilbraham's Almshouse at Welsh Row Head, was originally a low brick building of one story, the only ornament, in the centre, being a stone tablet of the Arms of Wilbraham, of Dorfold, and the date 1613. It stood close to the road, and had a garden behind divided into six plots. When Partridge wrote the six almsmen were supplied with a warm gown faced with blue, and a cap, once every two years, a pair of shoes every year, and forty shillings per annum. Of late years a sum of money has been allowed, which the almspeople expend in clothing.
The Almshouse was re-built in 1870 by John … Tollemache on the site of the former garden plots, in two groups of three houses each. These comfortable dwellings of two stories, with their gardens to the front, are an ornament to the west end of the town. The inmates are old married men; and on their deaths their widows are allowed to remain during their widowhood, if they conduct themselves properly.'

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, Sheet LVI 13 1876 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

These almshouses are shown on the OS First Edition 1:2500 map of 1876 and the location correlates with that given by Hall as 'on the site of the former garden plots' of the Wilbraham Almhouses (see 179/47/0).

<3> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

A row of 6 cottages in 2 identical blocks. Dated 1870. Red brick. Each block has 2 slightly projecting gabled bays with sham timber framing and spike finials to gables, 1 storey plus attic, 4 windows with cambered heads and iron lattice casements, 2 gabled dormers, 3 simple doorways with shallow pointed arched heads and batten doors; clustered stacks with shafts set diagonally; tiles. Over each central doorwaya cast-iron armorial plaque.

<4> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, p. 501 (Book). SCH3078.

Pevsner mentions 'Wilbraham's Almshouses', built by Lord Tollemache of Peckforton Castle in 1870 to replace Roger Wilbraham's originals (said to survive in part as the neighbouring Nos. 112-116) of 1613 for poor men. He describes them as two blocks of three houses in the style typical of Peckforton estate buildings of the period. Of brick with tall clustered chimneys, timbered gables and dormers, the windows with diamond glazing bars.