Almshouses Almhouses provide accommodation for elderly men and women on low incomes but able to look after themselves. Wealthy people sometimes left money to build almshouses for 'the worthy poor'. They also left extra income for all future expenses such as repairs. In 1593 Roger Manners founded almshouses in Bakewell for four poor men who had to be 'sole, unmarried and uncontracted'. That meant they had to be widowers or confirmed bachelors. Residents of the Harrison almshouses at Matlock Green were expected to be 'clean and tidy in their persons, regular in their habits, civil and obliging to each other, and not to be guilty of noisy or quarrelsome conduct'. Only a few found it difficult to behave, like the two aged sisters described as troublesome and ungrateful. Even so, they were treated sympathetically when a doctor declared that the shock of moving them to Bakewell workhouse would probably kill them both. Read More >> More Pictures Houses great and small