The Pemberton Almshouses
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Pemberton Almshouses by Ian Capper as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The Pemberton Almshouses
Image: © Ian Capper Taken: 16 Sep 2011
Built in 1627 in accordance with the will of Roger Pemberton, one time High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, following his death. He had ordered six almshouses to be built for poor widows, and had set up an endowment to provide the occupants with an allowance for food and clothing. He gave strict instructions on their behaviour, with the provision that they would lose their allowance as a first sanction, and their home if they failed to mend their ways. Tradition has it that Pemberton had shot a widow by accident, and it was in atonement for this that he had founded the almshouses. Although there would seem to be no historical basis for this story, there is an iron spike representing an arrow above the gateway - see Image Both the houses and the wall and gateway in front of it are grade II listed - for listing particulars see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1347160 and www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103050.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.756308
Longitude
-0.33519