Mary Warner Homes

In a remote village in Suffolk, lying between Rendlesham Forest and the shore of the North Sea, a group of houses was built two hundred and fifty years ago in 1736 as a response to the charitable directions in the will of a 52-year old spinster, the last of her branch of a well-known Suffolk family. The village is Boyton and its benefactor was Mistress Mary Warner, heiress to lands and property from several generations of Suffolk landed proprietors and merchants in the City of London.

Mary Warner intended the almshouses for six poor men and six poor women, each of whom was entitled to

"50 shillings yearly for suits of warm brown cloths. In 1802 four new appartments were added and the almspeople were entitled to a weekly stipend of seven shillings, a yearly allowance of two pounds fifteen shillings for clothing, two pounds five shillings for firing and one pound one shilling towards the expense of their washing. In the same year the nurse who cared for the inhabitants was given seven shillings a week as well as one shilling and sixpence for heating in the common oven."

Four new apartments were added in 1835 and four more in 1847. The elaborate marble slabs are there in memory of Mrs Mary Warner.

Click on some interesting topics about Boyton taken from "Charity, Clay and Coprolites" by Colin Maycock published by the Mary Warner Charity 1993.