Froxfield - Somerset Charities

Somerset Charities

When Sarah Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (see above) died in 1694, her will of 1686 created two charities. The Broad Town charity was to help young men with their education or to enter apprenticeships. It is now the Broad Town Trust, and since 1990 it has been open to young women applicants as well as young men.

The Duches also willed that almshouses and a chapel be built at Froxfield for 30 widows from Berkshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, London and Westminster, of whom half were to be widows of clergy. She willed that the Rector of Huish was to either serve as chaplain or provide another clergyman to do so. In practice the parish priest of Froxfield has usually served the Hospital in his place.

The Duchess left the estate of Froxfield Manor as an endowment to the almshouses, called the Duchess of Somerset's Hospital. One of the trustees of the Duchess's will was her brother-in-law, Sir Samuel Grimston, 3rd Baronet. He refused to convey the prescribed lands and income to the Hospital until he was ordered to do so by the Court of Chancery.

The original almshouses are built of brick around a quadrangle, with the chapel in the centre. In 1772-75 one range of seven almshouses was demolished and the Hospital was enlarged to a length of 37 bays. This enabled it to accommodate 50 widows and eligibility was extended from its original geographical catchment area to include widows from anywhere in England within 150 miles of London.

In 1813 or 1814 Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury paid for the original chapel to be demolished and replaced by a new, presumably larger one built in its place, designed by the architect Thomas Baldwin of Bath. A new gateway to the Hospital was added at the same time. The gateway and chapel are of ashlar masonry in a Georgian Gothick style.

The Hospital's investment income began to decline and from 1851 it made successive reductions to the resident widows' pensions. From 1882 it started to leave vacant almshouses unoccupied to save money and in 1892 parishes in London and Westminster complained that they were not being given their allocation of places at the Hospital. In 1897 the Charity Commission found the Hospital was housing only 16 widows, and by 1921 this number had fallen to 13.

In 1920-22 the Hospital sold its lands and increased its income by investing the capital. By 1922 it had increased its residents to 25 and increased their pensions. In 1963 the chapel was restored. In 1966 the Hospital broadened eligibility to any poor woman over 55. Gifts from other charities, public bodies and private donations were invested in maintaining and improving the almshouses. By 1995 it provided 45 houses and four flats for widows and one house reserved for guests.