The medieval hospitals of England: a complex issue
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-01-14

This paper will outline the importance of examining the full range of buildings found at the medieval hospitals of England, and how they interact as part of a complex, for understanding how these sites functioned, both physically and religiously. The medieval hospital first appeared in England in the 1080s, with two founded by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, and they lasted until 1547 when Edward VI passed the Chantries Act, abolishing the practice of prayers for the souls of the dead. In the four and a half centuries between these dates, the medieval hospitals were utilised by the charitable to cater to a range of people deemed worthy of Christian charity. Whilst poverty was an overwhelming concern, this often manifested in care for sufferers of leprosy or in sheltering poor wayfarers and pilgrims, and often attention has focussed on seeing how different hospitals cared for different people. Unfortunately this has often meant that examination of their underlying ideological foundation, especially architectural layout, has been ignored. Previous architectural discussion of English medieval hospitals have focussed specifically on the infirmary hall and chapel, the most likely elements to survive as standing remains, and have otherwise noted little overall planning to the site, if the rest of the buildings, such as kitchens or dormitories, are studied at all. Archaeologically, despite the ever increasing number of excavations from across the country, there has only been limited synthesis, the most complete by Roberta Gilchrist in 1995. In both fields the great variation in the nature and form of these buildings across the country has been noted and described as random, but medieval hospitals acted within a form of spiritual economy that also included institutions such as monasteries, nunneries, friaries, and chantries. Despite the overwhelmingly religious nature of these institutions, the underlying presence of a structure to their space has never truly been investigated. New research has suggested that when looking at these sites as a whole a hierarchy of space can be seen that implies that at some level there was a unified conception of how these sites should look and function, with areas to the south and east being ideologically higher than the north and west. Utilising case studies from excavated hospitals across England these structured spaces will be explored, from the famous St Mary Spital in London, to St Bartholomew’s at Bristol, to small pilgrim cells such as St Mary Magdalene at Partney, and suggest that the layout of English medieval hospitals was likely based upon religious ideology, social standing, and attitudes to gender. This paper will also highlight some of the implications this ordering of space may have had for those residing in the hospital complex, both staff and inmates. Ultimately the nature of the structured space is not surprising, given the mixed nature of these communities, with men and women, religious and secular, rich and poor, living together. What is surprising is the apparent ubiquity of this structuring across the country and throughout the later medieval period.

Author - Huggon, Martin, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom (Presenting author)