Almshouses provide affordable rented accommodation to people who might otherwise not have the means, and who meet the criteria set down by their particular almshouse charity.
King Athelstan reportedly started the almshouse movement in 936 when he was so moved by seeing churchmen in York providing alms to the poor from their own slender resources that he funded a dedicated almshouse for the city’s very poor, elderly and infirm inhabitants.
Over the years benefactors from all walks of life – initially the aristocracy and bishops, then rich mercantile guilds, philanthropists and trade benevolent societies – established almshouses in their areas.
