Editing Sherborne Abbey (section)

=== St Johns' Almshouse ===
In 1406, William Dodill chartered a new almshouse situated in Hound Street. However, by the 1430s larger and better premises were needed, so a new Sherborne almshouse was started by the old trustees of Dodill's almshouse.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web|last=Haigh|first=Les|date=2012|title=Kellaway and the almshouses|url=http://www.leshaigh.co.uk/notesstories/sherbornepage.html|access-date=29 December 2020|website=The Sherborne Page}}</ref> In 1436/7 a Royal charter was issued by King Henry VI to the Foundation, and this became the first fully licensed corporation in Sherborne.<ref name=":18" />

The site of this new almshouse – St Johns' Almshouse, or fully, "The Hospital of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist" – is the south west corner of the Abbey Close, probably on the site of an earlier hospital of St Augustine.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carter|first=Blanche LH|date=1931|title=Sherborne Almshouse|journal=Dorset Year Book|pages=19}}</ref><ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|last=Wildman|first=W.B.|date=1902|title=The Hospital|journal=A Short History of Sherborne|volume=2|pages=175–7}}</ref> The building was completed in 1448, consisting of a chapel (1442), ante-chapel with a door onto Trendle street, a dining hall, and dormitories above. It is the best surviving example of a medieval almshouse in Wessex.<ref>{{Cite web|title=St Johns' House|url=https://www.stjohnshouse.org/our-history/}}</ref> In 1858 some cottages in the Abbey Close were purchased and demolished so that the premises could be enlarged.<ref name=":17" /> In 1866 the east wing was built to create additional dormitories and a room with an oriel window called the board-room, together with other improvements.<ref name=":17" />

In the 15th century, the abbey already had an almshouse situated at Castleton<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ayres|first=Joseph|date=1802|title=Sherborne|journal=Town Plan (Based on John Ladd's Survey of 1735)}}</ref> (demolished in the 18th century), so it is likely that this building was for All Hallows Church (c.1360), not the abbey. Also, it is unusual for an almshouse to be so close to its respective church, and a possible reason may be that it was symbolic of the parishioners' growing resentment towards the monks for restricting their use of the abbey. However, this idea is difficult to substantiate.

==== Masters of the almshouse ====
1448 John Deen

1454 William Smyth

1468 Henry Borman