Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1066 to 1840

Monument Types

• SITE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1840 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5273 HARBLEDOWN CHURCH HILL (south side)
Piece of the wall of the original St Nicholas's Hospital TR 1358 31/354
II
2. Mediaeval rubble and red brick wall, the sole remaining part of Lanfranc's Hospital for Lepers of 1085 which was rebuilt on an adjoining site in 1685 and again in 1840.
Listing NGR: TR1303558164

The listing was updated in June 2014:

Summary of Building

Stone wall, possibly late C11.
Reasons for Designation

This piece of medieval wall at St Nicholas's Hospital is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: part of the original St Nicholas's Hospital, England's earliest leper hospital founded by Archbishop Lanfranc c.1084; * Early date: a well-preserved section of medieval stone walling, possibly of late-C11 date; * Group value: with the other listed structures belonging to St Nicholas's Hospital.

National Grid Reference: TR 13035 58164 (1)

History

This fragment of wall is all that remains of the domestic buildings of St Nicholas's Hospital – a leper hospital, probably the first in England, founded c.1084 by Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury 1070-89, and in operation until the end of the C14. Henry II visited St Nicholas's on his penitential journey to Canterbury in 1174. After c.1400 the hospital became an almshouse for the poor; it was recorded to have had sixty places for poor men and women in 1562. The foundation was reconstituted in 1565, and the domestic ranges were rebuilt in 1685 and again in 1840. It is still an almshouse today, for retired people.

At least 350 religious houses and hospitals for the care of lepers (known as leper or lazar houses) were established In England between the close of the C11 and 1350. Many have disappeared, destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s or simply decayed. Some remain, however – including this one, the oldest; St Mary Magdalen at Stourbridge near Cambridge; St Mary Magdalen in Sprowston, Norwich; and the hospital of St Mary the Virgin, Iiford. Others survive as ruins or archaeological sites.

Leprosy, known today as Hansen's disease, had entered England by the C4 and was endemic by 1050. Leper houses were usually built on the edge of towns and cities or, if they were in rural areas, near to crossroads or major travel routes – such as this one, on the Canterbury-London road. They needed to retain contact with society to beg alms, trade and offer services such as prayers for the souls of benefactors. There was high demand for places and 'leprous brothers and sisters' were often accepted fully into the monastic order of the house. Most houses had their own chapel and rituals for prayer and singing went on throughout the day.

Many lepers retained contact with their family and friends, being allowed to make visits home and to receive visitors. Attitudes began to change in the C14, particularly after the horrors of the Black Death (1347-1350), as fear of contagion led to greater restriction and isolation. However by this time leprosy was in retreat – possibly due to greater immunity in the population – and many houses fell into disuse or were put to new uses, often becoming almshouses for the sick and disabled and poor.

Details

Stone wall, possibly late C12, of ragstone rubble with later red-brick infilling. (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<1> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

<2> by David Knowles, R Neville Hadcock, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales (Bibliographic reference). SKE6370.

<3> Page, W. (ed), 1926, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Kent Volume II (Monograph). SKE7944.

<4> Ingram Hill, D., 2004, The Ancient Almshouses and Hospitals of Canterbury (Monograph). SKE29755.

<5> Jarrett, S. (English Heritage), 2014, Disability in Time and Place (Website). SKE29757.

<6> Lambeth Palace Library, 2014, National Church Institutions Databse of Manuscripts and Archives (Website). SKE29758.

Sources and further reading