Description: Looking north from the tower of St Helen's Church across the graveyard towards the Sir John Port almshouses. To the right, on the opposite side of Church Hill, with its mock half-timbering, is the vicarage.
The almshouses were established as a result of money left by Sir John Port in his will of 1556. Initially, this provided for six poor males to be housed in what was styled for many years as a 'hospital'. In 1622 the number of beneficiaries was increased to 12 and the present courtyard arrangement came into being in 1681, its central archway being surmounted by the carved arms of the Gerrard, Hastings and Stanhope families, into which Sir John's daughters had married. The separate east wing (on the right here) was added about 1714. The 'hospital' was run as a charity by a corporation with a resident 'Master' in charge of day to day running. Sobriety and church attendance were mandatory, as was the wearing of a uniform. A list of regulations dating from 1687 stipulated that almsmen were to be expelled if they married and it was not until 1867 that women were admitted.
Each house consisted of a living room with a fireplace, another ground floor room partitioned off, and a bedroom overhead, reached by a winding stairway. A resident nurse (who lived in a thirteenth cottage) washed and cooked for the inmates. The almshouses were listed Grade II-star in 1952 and in 1986 underwent a scheme of restoration with 10 modernised dwellings fashioned from the original 13.
Derby-based postcard publisher F W Scarratt took this photo and allocated it the number 669 in his series.