A row of 6 almshouses occupying 137-145 St Owen Street, Hereford. The block is known to have been rebuilt in 1678 and again in the late-19thc. It is of interest here on account of two stones reused as decorative features at either end of the street facade; a corbel and a double capital.

The Romanesque carvings are assumed to come from St Giles's Hospital. Relevant history will be found in the entry for that site.

The iconography generally accepted for the capital is that it illustrates the parable of the sheep and goats from Matthew 24, 31-46, the relevant passage of which reads,

‘But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.’

This is traditionally taken to refer to the Last Judgement, and the Christ dividing the Elect from the Damned, although Zarnecki considered that it represented the Good Shepherd (see Pevsner (1963), 185). The capital itself is badly eroded and has lost its neckings entirely. Fortunately a cast was taken when its condition was better, and this is now preserved in St Leonard’s, Ribbesford. A photograph is included here for comparative purposes.