LOOKING BACK How the city looked after those in need

CHRIS ROBINSON TAKES A LOOK BACK AT POST-WAR HOUSING RECONSTRUCTION

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IT is not clear when the Rawlin and Gayer Almshouses became known by those names, but for many years prior to the war, and before the removal of the Old Church Twelves on Green Street, we find Charles Church Almshouses (listed in the 1865 Street Directory) and then, ten years later, we find Green Street hosting 'Lanyon Charity Almshouses' that were also known as Charles Almshouses and/ or New Church Twelves) and the 'Corporation - Twelves, suggesting that these were the new arrivals but the older charity.

Whatever, in the 1920s, with local lawyer Henry Pridham as their clerk and treasurer, we find notice that the trustees are seeking to elect 'a poor widow' to Corporation Almshouse and Pension Charity in Green Street - full particulars on Church of England notice boards.

Almost 20 years later, in May 1940, and still with Pridham as their clerk, another vacancy for an Almsperson was advertised, with the ideal candidates being 'poor widows (or in default of poor widows, poor spinsters) of good character who have been resident in the Ancient Borough of Plymouth for not less than two years!' Clearly, the country was at war with Germany at that point, but few had given thought to Plymouth being a target for the enemy... the German airfields were too far away.

Not so, however, those in France.