This is the Hospital of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Castle Rising or, more simply, the beautiful village almshouses, just across the lane from the Norman church, and tucked around a corner from the impressive castle which gives the village its name.
It is home to six women who each live in a stone cottage, reached through a gatehouse and set around a garden quadrangle. The almshouses were built for 12 ‘sober spinsters and widows’ more than 400 years ago. The rules barred ‘beggars, harlots, scolds, drunkards and haunters of taverns and inns’ and stipulated prayers thrice daily and women ‘of honest life and conversation, religious, grave and discreet.’
Trinity Almshouses in Castle Rising. (Image: Sonya Duncan) The original rules have been updated, as have the 12 bedsits, now converted into six self-contained cottages each with a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. However the communal great hall or refectory, stretching along most of one side of the quadrangle, is pretty much as it would have been centuries ago.
A huge wooden table is flanked by benches, with grand carved chairs at the head and food. There are portraits of venerable historical figures on the walls and, on a cupboard at the far end, the tall black Tudor-style hats which have been part of the ceremonial costume of the Trinity Almshouse since it was founded in 1614 in memory of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton.
‘He would probably have been the richest man in the country,’ said Richard Waite, the current clerk of the Hospital of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
Trinity Almshouses in Castle Rising. CEO of the Almshouses Association Nick Phillips with Clerk to the Trustees, Richard Waite. (Image: Sonya Duncan) Richard, an architect, took over the voluntary and unpaid role from his dad, who was clerk here for 50 years.
‘I love the atmosphere of peace and quiet and tradition,’ he said. ‘It is a community.’
There are pictures of lots of royal visitors too. With the Sandringham estate bordering the village, generations of kings, queens, princes and princesses have paid a visit to this peaceful, picturesque community.
The residents, who are known as ‘sisters’ each have their own patch of beautifully tended garden and the communal land, once a kitchen garden producing food for shared meals in the dining........