Old hospitals not really for the sick
In medieval times Northampton had five hospitals.
Now these were not hospitals of the Holby City variety, they were more like hostels for travellers and homes for the poor and impotent.
Certainly the sick were not turned away, but generally the prime purpose was not the medical relief or cure of sickness.
Some of these were under the auspices of religious houses.
The Hospital of St David and The Holy Trinity in Kingsthorpe, for instance, was founded in 1200 by St Andrew's Priory.
Others were set up and run by the medieval equivalent of the borough council!
The Hospital of St Leonard was just over the river, on the south side of the town in Coton, somewhere in the area of St Leonard's Road maybe, but certainly within the parish of Hardingstone which, in those days, came down to the river.
This was a hostel founded by William the Conqueror specifically for lepers.
They had a special chapel of their own and were kept apart from other worshippers who used the main church.
Later in 1220, when indulgences were the thing, you could get seven days off purgatory if you gave money to support the hospital.
There was another hospital for lepers on the other side of town by the north gate. This was called the Hospital of Walbek.
Northampton has strong connections with Thomas Becket, of course, and a hospital in his name was built within the town walls, near the south bridge, in about 1450.
It was almost certainly a new version of an older hospital that was built in his honour along with the setting up of a Fraternity of St Thomas the Martyr in the mid-1200s.
Nowadays we have only one medieval hospital left in Northampton and that is at the bottom of Bridge Street, the Hospital of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist.
It was located near to the south gate and once comprised a chapel and a hospital or alms house.
There was also a master's house and this was demolished when St John's Railway Station was built nearby.
It was founded in 1137 for the reception and maintenance of eight infirm poor who were to receive two pence a day.
By 1400 the inmates had quite a strict routine to follow.
They were to talk as little as possible and they had to attend regular worship, wear a rough, plain uniform of one colour with a black cross on it and they could not leave the hospital unless they wore their uniform.
Anyone who went out to beg had to account for every groat within three days of their return and they must, under no circumstance, go to drinking parties in the town. In case they did, they had to confess their sins once a week!
The master's house, garden and chapel were sold in 1870 to the Bedford and Northampton Railway Company and subsequently to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton and, as many will remember, in 1955 it was converted into a Roman Catholic Church with the original chapel of Our Lady acting as a smaller side chapel.
It is now The Church restaurant.
But the hospital still lives on.
The foundation was relocated to Weston Favell in 1876 and is now a wonderful care home.
Residents can talk to their hearts' content . . . and don't even
have to wear serge!
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Friday 10 February 2012
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