Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Site of the medieval hospice of the Abbot of St Radigund's in Canterbury and a 18th century bathhouse. Demolished circa 1927 and now covered by a warehouse.

Monument Types

• BATHS (BATHS, Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• HOSPITAL (HOSPITAL, Medieval to Modern - 1193 AD to 1927 AD)

Full description

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TR 151582. Site of Abbott of St Radigunds Hospice and 18th century bathhouse, now covered by warehouse which was finally demolished about 1927. (1) An old wall the only remains of a bath-house dating back to Roman times, stands at the end of the garden of the Dolphin public house. In 1793-4 the City Corporation purchased and enlarged two basins. These were described in 1825 as being 20 feet by 11 feet and 4 feet deep fitted for cold bathing. The Dolphin built in 1827 was rebuilt in 1927. (2) St Radigund's Hospice was probably the occasional residence in Cantebury of the Abbotts of St Radigund's Abbey (1193-1536) near Dover (TR 24 SE 8). (3) Rear of 17 St. Radigund's Street. "Hollow pipes carried along in the thickness of an old stone wall", observed near St. Radigund's baths, at the rear of 17 St Radigund's Street [TR 15005826 - OS 1:1250 1971] just outside the city wall, probably relate to the baths. Seen by Gosling in 1774. (4)

From the Register of Scheduled Monuments:

Site of Abbot of St Radigunds Hospice and 18th century bath house, now covered by warehouse (finally demolished circa 1927). The scheduled area is totally warehouse. The western wall of the warehouse is 18th century (?) but this is only apparent from the outside in the garden of the public house next door. As some C18th brickwork is visible in the W wall of warehouse(5)

From the National Heritage List for England:

List entry Summary
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Name: Site of St Radigund's Hospice

List entry Number: 1005131

Location


The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County District District Type Parish
Kent Canterbury District Authority

National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.

Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.

Date first scheduled: 08-Oct-1979

Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System: RSM - OCN

UID: KE 352

Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description
Summary of Monument
Remains of St Radigund’s Hospice 27m west of The Little House.



Reasons for Designation
.In the medieval period a hospice or hospital was a place of refuge for pilgrims or wayfarers, normally set up along major roads. A medieval hospital comprises a group of buildings housing a religious or secular institution which provided spiritual and medical care. The idea for such institutions originated in the Anglo-Saxon period although the first definite foundations were created by Anglo-Norman bishops and queens in the 11th century. Documentary sources indicate that by the mid 16th century there were around 800 hospitals. A further 300 are also thought to have existed but had fallen out of use by this date. Half of the hospitals were suppressed by 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Some smaller institutions survived until 1547 when they were dissolved by Edward VI. Many of these smaller hospitals survived as almshouses, some up to the present day. Despite the large number of hospitals known from documentary sources to have existed, generally only the larger religious ones have been exactly located. Few hospitals retain upstanding remains and very few have been examined by excavation. In view of these factors all positively identified hospitals retaining significant medieval remains will be identified as nationally important.

St Radigund’s Hospice in Canterbury is known from documentary sources. The site has not been excavated and will contain archaeological information relating to the construction, use and history of the medieval hospice.

History
See Details.

Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 17 March 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a medieval hospitum and a post-medieval bath house surviving as upstanding and buried remains just to the north of the medieval walls of Canterbury.

The hospitum or hospice, a type of medieval hospital, survives as buried remains. The site has not been excavated but is considered to contain the wall foundations and medieval deposits associated with the hospice. An 18th century bath house was later added to the site and is well recorded in documentary sources. Part of the stone wall of the bath house is incorporated into the wall of a workshop at No.16 St Radigund’s Street.

St Radigund’s (or ‘Radegund’s’) Hospice is thought to have been an occasional residence in Canterbury of the Abbots of St Radegund’s Abbey near Dover. The hospice was dedicated to St Radegund, a sixth century Frankish Princess, canonized in the 9th century, who founded several hospices in France and a convent at Poitiers. In the 18th century a bath house was built on the site. It is recorded by William Gostling in ‘A Walk in and about the City of Canterbury’ (1825) as a spring fitted with a bath approximately 6m long, 3.4m wide and 0.9m-1.2m deep. According to Gostling, it was purchased by the Corporation of Canterbury in 1793. The following year the bath was deepened and a covering building with an arched roof was built, together with dressing rooms and a waiting room. The bath house was later converted into a warehouse. (6)

Test-pitting and geotechnical works in 2015 conformed that archaeological remains survive across the site albeit possibly at some depth. (7)

<1> DOE (IAM) Record Form 12 12 78 (OS Card Reference). SKE40733.

<2> Northgate News 10 Aug 1979 3 (OS Card Reference). SKE47681.

<3> R1 SW 28-FEB-80 (OS Card Reference). SKE48936.

<4> Eng Heritage Arch of Cant : An Assessment, 1985 139 No 4 (G Andrews) (OS Card Reference). SKE41586.

<5> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

<6> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

<7> Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd, 2015, 16 St Radigund’s Street, Canterbury, Evaluation and archaeological monitoring of test-pits and geotechnical boreholing (Unpublished document). SKE52633.

Sources and further reading