Tomkins Almshouses 1733

Abingdon has at least six sets of almshouses - these are one of least known.

I normally just peer through the railings or the gate but today, on my way back from the dentist, I got into conversation with two of the tenants who invited me into the garden to take photos. One had lived there 20 years, the other 10; both love living there. 

The inscription under the clock says:

These Alms Houfes were built in the year 1733 by the Order of M BENJAMIN TOMKINS the Elder of this Town according to the form prefcribed by him to his sons M BENJAMIN and M JOSEPH TOMKINS who were executors  to his laft will and Teftament by which he gave Sixteen Hundred Pounds to endow the Same For four Poor Men and four Poor Women for Ever.

What a generous chap! I reckon he'd be chuffed to see them still going strong almost 300 years later.