The Leper Hospital - Winchester, Hampshire

Time Team • Season 8 • Episode 13

About this episode

Outside of the city boundaries of Winchester, in what is today known as Hospital Field, once stood the St Mary Magdalen Leper Hospital. Probably founded in around 1140 by Henry of Blois, the superb chapel was recorded in engravings as a ruin in the 17th century. A large portion of the field was used as an army camp during WWI. A 180 metre well is discovered. Other trenches find the remains of the chapel, the Master's house, and the almshouses, as well as the cemetery, where a skull showing signs of leprosy is found. Within the chapel, an unusual double burial appears to be, as found in the records, the former Master of the hospital, followed almost 50 years later by his daughter. Victor sculpts a bust of a leper based on a skull excavated elsewhere. Nicholas Orme explains how lepers were viewed in the Middle Ages.