Look straight ahead, and you’ll spot a pathway lined with neat, grassy lawns and colourful flowers guiding you towards a small, strong-looking stone building. The building stands proudly at the end, its warm golden stones glowing under the sun. Notice the tiny bellcote perched on its roof, with just one bell still holding on after all these centuries. The old chapel stands with an inviting arched doorway-a little mysterious, as if it’s waiting to tell you a secret from long ago.
Now that you're here, you’re standing before the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, a place that’s seen more drama than a soap opera! This hospital was built over 700 years ago-just imagine Benedictine monks bustling about, their robes swishing as they cared for the poor and sick right where you’re standing. The original almshouses were for ten men, and the chapel behind you would have been their place for prayer and maybe even a sneaky nap during long services.
The monks were rather good landlords until the monarchs had other plans and the big, important hall was demolished. And life definitely wasn’t easy for the next residents-lepers, the elderly, the forgotten, all found a place here from the 1400s onward. Once after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when Henry VIII was sending monks packing, this place lost its big daddy funding and had to fend for itself, getting by on help from the Crown.
If you look up, you’ll see that little bellcote on the roof. They say it once called everyone for prayers-or to dinner, whichever was more urgent. Around you, the single chapel room is all that’s left of bigger dreams; even the window had to be blocked up! Over time, the almshouses became tiny dwellings-you could say it was a medieval starter apartment. Some got so run-down that by the 1700s, the roof was more a suggestion than protection. Even today, a restored almshouse shows you how small these ‘homes’ really were. Talk about compact living!
In the 1960s, part of the old building was lost, but the garden and some flats bring a bit of modern life to all this ancient stone. As you look around, close your eyes for a moment and think: centuries of footsteps have rustled the grass and echoed off these very walls-from monks to the forgotten to curious visitors like you. History doesn’t get much more real than this, and-on the bright side-there’s much less risk of catching leprosy during your visit than in the 1400s!
