Burges designed the almshouses in 1865. His patron was
Joseph Yorke, of the family of local landowners. The family fortune had been established by
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, a successful lawyer and politician. His son
James Yorke (1730–1808) acquired the
Forthampton Court estate in 1762, through his marriage to an heiress,
Mary Maddox. James Yorke became successively
Bishop of St David's,
Bishop of Gloucester and
Bishop of Ely. His grandson Joseph commissioned Burges to undertake a restoration of the Forthampton parish church, St Mary the Virgin, between 1863 and 1866, and the almshouses, which stand next to the church, were completed during this period. The restoration and construction work at Forthampton was conceived as a memorial to Joseph's daughter, Augusta Emmeline, who died in 1863, weeks after giving birth to an heir. Alan Brooks, in the revised 2002
Gloucestershire volume of
Pevsner's
Buildings of England series, describes the Yorke almshouses as "a thin row, with gables bearing the Yorke arms and their crest as
finials". They are built of
limestone, to a symmetrical design, with a
fish scale tiled roof. The complete block is designated a
Grade II listed building. ==Notes==