Old House

Built around 1600 as ‘Birchetts’, this building became the village workhouse in 1722 and was called ‘The Old Poor House,’ with interestingly a certain George Poore as its ‘Overseer.’ 

The original name of this Grade II-Iisted house was ‘Birchetts,’ after the family who owned the land It was built in the early 1600s, possibly by Richard Luffe, who bought the copyhold at that time. Luffe was a weaver/tailor. 

In 1722 an Act of Parliament was passed authorising parish officers to purchase properties which could be used to house the poor, physically and mentally infirm, and orphans. Such properties were known originally as ‘poorhouses,’ and later ‘workhouses.’  Around 1722-24 an extension was built by one George Poore. His job as ‘overseer of the poor’ was the organisation of the workhouse. The house name then became ‘The Old Poor House.’ 

The inmates of the workhouse were mainly occupied in making clothes for working people out of fustian. Village weavers lived next door in a cottage called ‘Adlers’ after their family name. This name was first recorded in 1661, when George Adler gave a shilling to Charles II’s cause.  As the Adlers were fustian weavers it is very likely they supplied cloth to the workhouse tailors. 

Adlers Cottage was a casualty of the recession in the 1920s when the houses were sold off.