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> Read the Report in Almshouses Gazette
Although the Almshouses are not directly associated with the church,
they are managed by the Village Charity (Wickhambrook United Charities).
The project to renovate the two almshouse cottages is now complete.
The Trustees of the Wickhambrook United Charities are pleased with
the results. The work was able to be completed with a very generous
grant from the Bury St Edmunds Council, and a loan from the Almshouses
Association. Also a very generous donation was received of £2,000
from Carr Sheppards Crossthwaite. The Trustees were able to have the
gardens completely renovation with this money. Two new residents have
moved into the cottages and we hope they will settle in soon and be
very happy in their new homes. We still will need help for the gardens
with plants you can spare. Offers please to the Vicar for the Spring.
If you would like to help with this work or donate some plants for
the gardens please contact the Vicar
(chairman of the Trustees)
History
The almshouses are believed to have been built in 1615 by an Anthony
Sparrow (there were a number with that Christian name). In the will
left by another Anthony Sparrow - a previous Bishop of Norwich who
died 19th May 1685 in his 74th year - a sum of £3 a year was
to be paid to the church wardens and overseers of the poor in Wickhambrook;
this was for the upkeep of parishioners in the almshouses. Born at
Depden, his birth was registered in the records of Wickhambrook as
son of Samuel, baptised 7th May 1612. He became rector of Hawkedon
in 1648, but was expelled after only five weeks for reading the Book
of Common Prayer. He was afterwards reinstated in the living and soon
after was appointed Archdeacon of Sudbury. He became Bishop of Norwich
in 1676.
The Sparrow bequest was to be bestowed and laid out in firewood for
the poor dwellers in his almshouses which his relative had built near
the church. The original almshouses consisted of six tenements under
the same roof, with about a rood and a half of garden, and were to
be occupied rent-free by poor widows or maids of the age of 40 years
upwards, and for want of such maids or widows then some lone man of
the Parish of Wickhambrook.
The almshouses were restored in 1887 by friends of the poor of Wickhambrook,
part of the cost being met by relatives of the late Nathaniel Warner
Bromley Esq of Badmondisfield. They were rethatched (in reed) by Mr
F. Linnet of Hawkedon in 1967 at a cost of £675. The almshouses
are now divided into two dwellings. |
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