Description

BENTLEY WITH ARKSEY HIGH STREET
SE 50 NE (west side),
Arksey

7/54 Cooke's Almshouses
10.12.59
GV II
Almshouses. 1660, gateway rebuilt 1736, C20 alterations. For Sir Bryan
Cooke (d.1660). Cement-rendered magnesian limestone (exposed on right
return), C19 shaped-tile roof. 12 single-storey dwellings set in U-shaped
plan with wing walls to central front gateway enclosing the quadrangle.
Roadside front: central gateway has C20 wrought-iron gates in renewed ashlar
sandstone surround with projecting keystone, pulvinated frieze and plaque
with Latin inscription beneath cartouche in coped gable. Terracotta tiles
form copings to attached wing walls which link to gable ends of almshouses
each having C20 casement, shaped kneelers and roll-moulded gable copings.
2 rendered stacks to each ridge. Within quadrangle: central round-arched
opening to passage through to rear. Nos 2, 5, 8 and 11 retain cemented
chamfered mullioned windows; chamfered door lintels, all painted. Exposed
within the passage to rear is the original roof structure with tie beam and
rafters pegged at apex. C20 additions to rear not of special interest.
Translated inscription of porch plaque (cited in Miller, p228) reads:

"Bryan Cooke, of Wheatley in the county of York, Esq. by his last will and
testament, signed the 3rd day of Jan. A.D. 1660, appointed this building
to be erected, a sum of money sufficient for that purposes being bequeathed
for the use of twelve persons the most distressed by poverty and age in the
parish of Arksey; to each of whom he left 5L. annually, in succession
for ever".

"Sir George Cooke, Baronet, great grandson of the above named Bryan,
rebuilt this porch nearly levelled to the ground by the injuries
of time, Oct. 30 A.D. 1736".

E. Miller, The History and Antiquities of Doncaster, 1804.

Listing NGR: SE5787306892

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26575391

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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