A CLERK to the seventeenth-century almshouses at Kirkleatham has retired after 23 years.

Allan Wordsworth, clerk to the trustees of the Sir William Turner Almshouses, which were established in 1676, served four chairmen.

The former Tyneside social worker and author said: "When I first started the residents paid only 50p per week.

"The almshouses staggered along from month to month with barely sufficient funds to pay its bills.

"We gradually eased the weekly payments up so we could afford to do the basic repairs."

Following a recent refurbishment residents now pay from £46 a week for a single bedroom cottage.

John Davies of Stokesley has been appointed as Mr Wordsworth's successor.

For 275 years the almshouses were controlled by the Lords of the Manor.

Sir William Turner established the properties and was followed by the senior members of his descendant family until the estates passed into the hands of the Newcomen family in the 1840s.

In 1951 the estate was sold off and the almshouses came under the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners.

There have been four clerks in the past 51 years.