Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

St Mary's Hospital, known nowadays as the Maison Dieu, was founded around 1230 and dissolved in 1516. Two portions have survived as standing buildings south of Watling Street, but various excavations over the years have revealed the main complex of buildings north of Watling Street. This complex included a hall with octagonal pillars, a reredorter, a chapel with undercroft, dovecote, millpond and cemetery. A substantial building with under croft is thought to be the 'Camera Regis' referred to in documents, where travelling royals stayed. One of the surviving buildings has been restored and is now used as a museum.

Monument Types

• HOSPITAL (Medieval - 1230 AD to 1539 AD) + Sci.Date
• HOSPITAL (Post Medieval - 1561 AD to 1581 AD)
• CHAPEL (Demolished, Post Medieval - 1585 AD to 1585 AD)
• HOSPITAL (Demolished, Post Medieval - 1585 AD to 1585 AD)

Full description

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[TR 0035 6085] St. Mary's Hospital [NR] (Remains of) [NAT] (1)

No. 17, Ospringe Street, Faversham, is the surviving portion of the Maison Dieu Hospital (St. Mary B.V.), founded before 1234, dissolved 1516. Now a museum. Scheduled. (2-4)

The remains of St. Mary's Hospital comprises two outbuildings, now part of No. 15 and No. 17, Ospringe Street, Faversham. No. 15 is a private residence; No. 17 known as "Maison Dieu", has been restored by the Ministry of Works and is open to the public. The main building of the hospital (the hall and chapel) is thought to have been immediately opposite on the N side of the road. See GPs AO/63/129/7 and 8. (5)

[TR 0036 6085] Maison Dieu [NAT] [TR 0038 6083] St. Mary's Hospital [NR] Remains of [NAT] (6)

[TR 004 609] The hospital of Maison Dieu at Ospringe (see Illustration Card for location map) seems to have been established for the poor, aged and infirm soon after 1230. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and consisted of three brethren professed in the Order of the Holy Cross, and two secular clerks. The real founder may have been Jubert de Burgh (11), but it is said to have been founded by Henry III, who was its benefactor in 1234. References to St. Nicholas and St. John (1)(b) are incorrect descriptions of the hospital. (8) The history of the house is well documented. Its decline began in the 14th century. Sometime between 1470-80 the brethren died, the secular clerks left and the house became desolate. Secular clerks later occupied the house, which lingered on until the Reformation. It was dissolved in 1516, when St. John's College, Cambridge received its endowments and patronage. Most of the hospital complex was demolished before the "Survey of Kentish Estates" c1571 and William Strensham demolished the chapel in 1585. By 1913 everything above ground of the main hospital complex to the north of Watling Street had disappeared. The only upstanding remains were the stone walls of two undercrofts, probably dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, incorporated in post-Dissolution buildings on the south side of the street. The name of "leper house" became associated with one of these buildings (c), but it is more likely that both were domestic undercrofts built to carry first floor halls or solars of ground floor halls (11).

The west building was saved from demolition in 1922 and converted to a museum. Its upper part probably dates from the late 16th century, and it had been altered to a shop in 1894. When the building came into Guardianship in 1947 it was temporarily safeguarded. In 1952-5 it was thoroughly restored, when the original doorcase was re-set and the shop window removed. Several concealed windows in the upper floor were also re- opened. In May 1957 heavy footings of a range c25ft wide, immediately flanking the road on the north side were found during digging of drainage ditches. These were recorded by Rigold (11) who associated the northern remains with the Camera Regis known to have been built at the hospital for Henry III. South of these a wall was found which seemed to preserve the north line of the hospital precinct. Other substantial remains were: the east face of a massive substructure parallel to the watercourse, part of a bridge and beginnings of the street range foundations. The trench revealed little of the plan of the main buildings, but tended to confirm the view that they lay to the east of the watercourse within a precinct wall on the north side but fronting directly on the street to the south. The hospital site was excavated by the D.O.E. Central Excavation Unit and local societies in 1977, prior to housing development. The north end of the hall and its reredorter were found. The hall was of flint, 13 metres wide, with a central arcade of octagonal stone pillars. A stone-lined culvert which served the reredorter ran under the main floor of the hall. Other structures included a long building with two circular ovens in one room. Another, more substantial building, had a four-bayed undercroft and first floor hall, the floor of which had been supported on three posts and its walls painted with "false ashlar" and motifs. On stratigraphical evidence this building - possibly the camera regis - was built some time after the main wall of the hospital. To the north lay part of the hospital cemetery, a dovecote and part of a large pond. To the west of the hall was a small garden close. Further to the east was part of another building adjacent to the probable corner of the hospital garden. (See Illustration Card for plans summarising all excavated and documentary evidence.) The main buildings were shown to have been erected soon after the foundation, the "infirmaries" by c1240 and the chapel by c1250. The earliest pottery dated from the mid 13th century and there were no signs of earlier buildings. Finds included oyster shells, bones, gilt strips, gilt and enamelled plaque, spurs, keys, knives, pins, buckles and cauldron fragments, mostly dating from c1483 until the demolition period of 1516-1571. Building debris and the fragmentary remains of many individuals were also found. (7-15)

The Maison Dieu, Ospringe. An electric cable trench dug on the ground at the rear of the eastern undrcroft turned up a few 13th/14th century sherds. (16)

Additional reference. (17)

Additional reference - animal bones and crucifix from the site of the hospital of St. Mary of Ospringe, near Faversham, Kent, commonly called the Maison Dieu. (18)

[TR 002 608] Maison Dieu, Ospringe, scheduled. (19)

Ospringe Maison Dieu, Kent, under guardianship. (20)

No. 15 Ospringe Street (south side), Grade II*. The west end of this building is part of the medieval Maison Dieu Hospital founded in 1230 of which the main buildings were on the north side of the road. No. 17 (The Maison Dieu Museum), Grade II*, Ospringe Street (south side). This building is the most substantial surviving portion of the medieval Maison Dieu Hospital, founded 1230. It was at one time a public house, but is now Scheduled as an Ancient Monument and is used as a small museum. (For full descriptions see list.) (21)

Excavations by KARU in the summer of 1989, ahead of redevelopment work at Nos. 14-18 The Street, opposite the Maison Dieu, revealed a series of medieval wall foundations relating to the Hospital of St. Mary, founded in the 13th Century. The principal excavated structures and features consisted of a series of mortared flint walls, together with several small pits, all of medieval date. In addition, there was some evidence for earlier, prehistoric settlement, in the form of a worked flint scraper and 76 other pieces of burnt and struck flint, all derived from the lowest levels on the site. Of the excavated objects, medieval and later finds were disapointingly few and consisted mainly of a small collection of architectural fragments and other building materials, including painted wall plaster; a number of decorated, glazed floor tiles, pottery, five coins of 18th and 19th Century date. (25, 30)

Dendrochronology dating of the jetty and fireplace gave a date range of 1462-1482. Further samples were taken from the south wing but could not be dated. (32)


From the National Heritage List for England:
Details
The monument includes a 16th century house incorporating part of the Maison Dieu, which is all that remains upstanding of the 13th century hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The house is situated to the south of Faversham on Watling Street, which was the main route between Dover and London, via Canterbury, in the medieval period. The hospital is known from excavation to have been more extensive than the visible remains suggest, covering an area north and south of the road. The other visible part of the Maison Dieu is incorporated into an inhabited building immediately to the east of the monument. The building included in the monument is Listed Grade II* and includes 13th century walls associated with the medieval hospital, along with examples of 16th century architecture and some early 18th century alterations. The 13th century stonework is thought to be part of an undercroft intended to support a hall or chamber above. The walls have narrow, rectangular windows and a door on to the street, the sill of which is c.0.5m below present ground level. The stonework of the walls is of a rougher rubble than that of the other inhabitated portion of the Maison Dieu. The windows have a narrower splay and are made of inferior ragstone. The door arch has long voussoirs and a coarse quarter-round moulding with a chamfered outer order. These features have been taken to suggest a construction date for the building of c.1300 or a little later, when the hospital could no longer afford first class masonry. The chamber above the medieval remains is post-1516 and is of one build, although a number of alterations have been made over time. The 16th century house consisted of a ground-floor hall, to the west of the old undercroft. Upstairs would have been the parlour, solar and the Great Chamber. The Maison Dieu of Ospringe is claimed to have been founded by Henry III in 1234; however, it is more likely that it was founded by Hubert de Burgh c.1230, and that it was one of the properties handed over to the king when de Burgh fell from grace in 1234. The hospital's dominant purpose was to care for the sick and aged; a second purpose was the shelter of pilgrims on their way to and from Canterbury to visit the shrine of St Thomas Beckett. Two thirds of all the hospitals in Kent are located along Watling Street. The hospital was staffed by a small number of regular clerics along with Brethren of the Holy Cross. The total included a master or warden, three professed brethren, two secular chantry priests who prayed for the souls of the founder and benefactors of the hospital, and various `sisters' who filled the role of nurses, rather than being almswomen. Henry III added another function to the hospital by having a royal chamber built (the Camera Regis), so that he and his entourage could stay there whenever they travelled to or from the coast. It appears that Henry made little use of this facility, unlike his son Edward I, who used it often, a factor which may have placed an added strain on the finances of the institution. A chapel was established at the Maison Dieu soon after 1235, when an agreement was made with the abbot of St Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury. Following this, in 1245, the brethren were also granted the right of burial within the hospital precincts. For the first 20 years after its foundation, endowments and gifts came quickly and the hospital flourished, but during the reign of Edward I it stagnated and became perpetually insolvent. The Maison Dieu struggled on until 1516 when the Bishop of Rochester obtained its dissolution, and added its revenues to those of St John's College, Cambridge. The Maison Dieu thus ceased to function as a hospital, although the obligation to pray for the souls of its founder and benefactor remained, and thus a series of chantry priests was appointed. Of the hospital buildings, all but the chapel and the chaplain's house were leased out to a local businessman. In 1547, under the reformation of Edward VI, the chantry lost its religious status and the remaining buildings were also leased out. Since the 16th century, the building has been used as a house, a public house and a shop; it was placed in State care in 1947 and is used to house a museum for the archaeology and history of the Faversham area. The medieval walls in Nos 15 and 17 Ospringe Street are the only upstanding remains of the Maison Dieu. The main complex of buildings relating to the hospital, including the Common Hall, the chapel and the Camera Regis, was located on the north side of Ospringe Street, in an area now redeveloped for private housing. Much of the hospital site was excavated in 1977 prior to development when a partial plan of the precinct was recovered, and many of the hospital buildings were identified. The main buildings were shown to have been erected soon after the hospital's foundation, the `infirmaries' by c.1240 and the chapel by c.1250. The earliest pottery from the site dated from the mid- 13th century and there were no signs of earlier buildings. Both the upstanding structure of No 17 Ospringe Street (The Maison Dieu) and the ground beneath the house are included in the scheduling. All modern fittings within the structure are excluded, including the staircase, the fittings for the electricity and heating system, the English Heritage sign on the outside wall of the building, the display cabinets in the museum, modern red brick infilling in the fireplaces and modern brick rebuilding.

Reasons for Designation
The Maison Dieu along with the building immediately to the east, which is inhabited and not included in the scheduling, incorporates remains that are all that is thought to survive of a 13th century hospital. Excavation has revealed that the hospital was originally extensive, most of the complex having been situated north of Watling Street. Following the dissolution of the hospital in 1516, the Maison Dieu was adapted as a private house but has undergone few alterations since. Medieval hospitals were groups of buildings, established largely between the Anglo-Saxon period and the 16th century, designed to provide spiritual and medical care. Some, like this example, enjoyed royal patronage. Documentary sources indicate that by the mid-16th century there were around 800 hospitals in England. A further 300 are also thought to have existed but had fallen out of use by this date. Few medieval hospitals retain upstanding remains and very few have been examined by excavation. Although the Maison Dieu is peripheral to the main hospital complex, it does form an integral part of an example which is well- documented, both from archaeological and historical sources. The house is also a well-preserved example of 16th century architecture, with evidence surviving for its various uses, as a chaplin's house, a public house and a shop.

Extensive georesistivity surveys and two small scale excavations were carried out as part of a research project in the Ospringe area by the Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group into prehistoric and early medieval human activity. One excavation, K43, was in the back garden of 20-22 Ospringe Steet and the other, K62, in the garden of the nearby Ship Inn. A number of medieval features were revealed, including a medieval flint wall foundation, a robbed out wall trench set into a chalk foundation, two pebble cobbled floor/ courtyard surfaces and a mortared floor surface. All of these were part of the former Hospital of St Mary Ospringe. Both the excavated walls and the ones showing on the resistivity survey were aligned with the Street (Watling Street) rather than the Westbrook stream which flows at an angle through the site. The medieval features were all left in situ and the only finds of any substance were post medieval in date. (31)

In 2007 Archaeology South-East carried out a watching brief on groundworks at The Fairways, northeast of Maison Dieu. Masonry walls were found, relating to the hospital of St Mary. Features identified included a culvert, a hearth, a floor and possibly part of the Common Hall of the hospital. (33)

<1> OS 1:1250 1958 (OS Card Reference). SKE48176.

<2> MHLG (1103/11/A June 1949) 19 (OS Card Reference). SKE46908.

<3> Med Religious Houses England and Wales 1953 297 (D Knowles and R N Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46816.

<4> AM England and Wales 1961 59 (OS Card Reference). SKE33022.

<5> F1 AC 09-AUG-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE41777.

<6> OS 1:2500 1963 (OS Card Reference). SKE48205.

<7> Arch Cant 30 1913 35-68 plan illust photo (C H Drake) (OS Card Reference). SKE34983.

<8> Pat 31 Hen III m6 (OS Card Reference). SKE48496.

<9> Close 17 Edw III pt 2 m 27d (OS Card Reference). SKE39024.

<10> VCH Kent 2 1926 222-4 (F C Fowler) (OS Card Reference). SKE50965.

<11> Arch Cant 38 1926 113-121 fig photos (C H Drake) (OS Card Reference). SKE35060.

<12> Arch J 86 1929 106-7 fig (W H Godfrey) (OS Card Reference). SKE36699.

<13> Hist and Antiq of Faversham 81 (J Lewis) (OS Card Reference). SKE43772.

<14> Arch Cant 79 1964 31-47 figs photos (S E Rigold) (OS Card Reference). SKE35670.

<15> Med Religious Houses England and Wales 1971 210 329 383 (D Knowles and R N Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46820.

<16> Md Arch 22 1978 159-60 (J Cherry) (OS Card Reference). SKE46611.

<17> KAR 52 1978 49-50 Photo (G H Smith) (OS Card Reference). SKE45361.

<18> Arch Cant 95 1979 81-184 full excavation report (G H Smith) (OS Card Reference). SKE36235.

<19> Kent Arch Review No.10 (1967) 5. (OS Card Reference). SKE45866.

<20> Arch Cant 96 1980 227-265 figs (S M Wall) (OS Card Reference). SKE36241.

<21> Md Hospitals 1966 298 (R M Clay) (OS Card Reference). SKE46665.

<22> DOE (IAM) AMs England 2 1978 111 (OS Card Reference). SKE40696.

<23> HBMC List of Monuments in Care of the Commission New Series Feb 1984 (J A M Hunt) (OS Card Reference). SKE43750.

<24> DOE (HHR) Boro of Faversham Kent Aug 1972 56 (OS Card Reference). SKE39842.

<25> Parfitt, K., 1990, Archaeological Excavation and Recording at Nos. 14-18 The Street, Ospringe, 1990, Kent Arch Review No.100 (1990) 228-229. (Unpublished document). SKE11903.

<26> Field report for monument TR 06 SW 15 - August, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5290.

<27> `MAISON DIEU' AT OSPRINGE STREET, FAVERSHAM, FORMERLY PART OF ST MARY'S HOSPITAL, FROM SOUTH EAST (Photograph). SKE2531.

<28> `MAISON DIEU' AT OSPRINGE STREET, FAVERSHAM, FORMERLY PART OF ST MARY'S HOSPITAL/ FROM NORTH EAST. (Photograph). SKE2532.

<29> MAISON DIEU, OSPRINGE SITE ARCHIVES (Collection). SKE6520.

<30> Parfitt, K. M., 1990, Excavations at Nos. 14-18 The Street, Ospringe, 1989 Kent (Article in serial). SWX7640.

<31> Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group, 2012, Understanding Ospringe Project 2008-9 and 2011 (Unpublished document). SKE17255.

<32> Vernacular Architecture Group, ADS Dendrochronology Database, Vol. 32, Pg. 93 (Website). SKE17391.

<33> Archaeology South-East, 2008, Archaeological investigations at Fairways, Ospringe, near Faversham, Kent: Post-excavation assessment and project design for publication (Unpublished document). SKE25166.

<34> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

<35> Peter Higginbotham, Higginbotham, Peter. 2000. The Workhouse. (Website). SKE53741.

<36> Historic England, Historic England Archive (Archive). SKE53743.

Sources and further reading

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