John Bowley and Sherwood Almshouses

Almshouses are unfurnished dwellings, usually specially designed with the needs of older people in mind. The aim is to provide convenient and comfortable accommodation in a setting that allows residents to come and go as they please. Almshouses provide security and residents are encouraged to make friends and share a wider social life through contact with other residents. The John Bowley and Sherw

ood Almshouses is a registered charity which was formed in 2007 when the The John Bowley Almshouses Trust merged with the Sherwood Almshouses Trust. The John Bowley Almshouses Trust was established in the will of Susannah Banks in 1907 in memory of her husband, John Bowley. The Trust purchased land in Cheriton and built two adjoining almshouses in 1909. These were demolished and replaced by a block of flats in 1996. The Charity was originally for “poor trades people or mechanics or their widows or daughters over 60 years who are members of the Church of England”. The Sherwood Almshouse Trust was set up in the 1950s by Marion Sherwood. She made provision for the construction of four bungalows for ‘poor women, of good character, over 60 years of age, being widows, spinsters or married women living apart from their husbands’. The John Bowley and Sherwood Almshouses is run in accordance with a Scheme document approved by the Charity Commission in 2007.