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Along the Moors - Preston
Settling In
The widows occupied linked parlour-bedrooms, with their own small gardens, in the west wing of the hospital. In 1830, they each received a pension of £18 per annum, two tonnes of coal, bedding and furniture and a £5 allowance for funeral expenses. By that time, the number of widows living on site had increased to 26, following the addition of two side wings by JH Haycock, completed in 1827. The number of girls boarding at the hospital appears to have increased, too, and in 1818 there were 20 scholars receiving tuition in the central hall, while the upper age limit for young residents was raised to 16 by 1880.
Boarding appears to have continued on site until 1952, while elderly widows and unmarried women were still accommodated in the hospital’s 24 bed-sit flats in 2001. However, the slump in demand for such properties, combined with their secluded location and the prohibitive cost of improving them, led to the homes’ trustees reluctantly deciding to sell the hospital building and relocate to more modern facilities in Newport, which opened in 2004. Since then, the almshouses have been sympathetically re-developed as private properties and have retained much of their original character. This is evident as the trail approaches the outskirts of Preston, where two gate lodges (built in 1831 with materials from the village brickworks) still stand guard over the hospital quadrangle. The forecourt is approached via a tree-lined avenue that comes to an end before a set of original 18th Century wrought iron gates, incorporating the crest of the Newport family — the original founders of the institution.