The almshouses in 2014
In his Will of 1692, William Barber left a small farm in Carleton Rode to support a minister in
New Buckenham and build a new dwelling where the almshouses are now in Castle Hill Road
for four poor people to live there rent free. In 1861 both the almshouses and the ‘Town Houses’
around the corner in Marsh Lane were rebuilt in a similar Victorian Jacobean style, funded
mainly from the estates of New Buckenham brothers Horace and Joseph Jacob Turner who were
wine and spirit merchants. See also Zachary Clark: Charities belonging to the Poor: 1811.
The building of four self contained
dwellings remained largely unchanged until
renovation in 1992, as seen in the drawing.
Each dwelling had a kitchen/living room, a
bedroom and a lobby. Initially each
resident had an allowance of 2s/6p weekly
plus an allowance of coal. Electricity was
not installed until the mid 1950s.
The trustees ran both the Barber and Juby charities covering the almshouses, ecclesiastical and
school attendance and clothing. The ecclesiastical and educational parts of the charities were
eventually would up leaving just the William Barber’s Almshouse Charity. Extensive records of
the three charities have been deposited at the Norfolk Record Office.
In the 1992 renovations and enlargements
each dwelling was given a separate kitchen
and bathroom as shown in the areas marked
red. More recent alterations converted the
outhouses for storage and oil tanks, again
one for each dwelling.
William Barber’s Almshouses
© The New Buckenham Society 2015 (rev 2023)
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