Sunday 22 January 2017

The Lord Leycester Hospital - Warwick's Mediaeval Gem

The Hospital is an historic group of timber-framed buildings on Warwick High Street dating mainly from the late 14th Century clustered round the Norman gateway into the town with its 12th Century Chantry Chapel above it. For nearly 200 years it was home to Warwick’s medieval Guilds.
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I it became, under the patronage of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a place of retirement for old warriors known as the Brethren. The Brethren and Master, who still live within the walls of the building, are a living legacy of almost 450 years of history. Every morning they meet in the Chapel and pray together the words their founder Robert Dudley set down.

 









The Charter set up a corporation of a Master (a clergyman) in charge and twelve resident Brothers.  The Master moved into the house which Thomas Oken had previously occupied in the days of the Guilds and parts of the buildings, including the Guildhall itself, were divided into primitive quarters for the Brethren.  The establishment was endowed with estates producing an income of some £200 per year.
This 19th Century engraving (above) depicts the Courtyard of the Hospital with two of the Brethren in conversation, a third lurking in the corner and a fourth Brother on the stairway up to the Guildhall.
An arcade supports the gallery running along the eastern side of the courtyard.   Beneath this is the Brethren’s Kitchen where the Brothers prepared their food. The Archway leads through to the front of the hospital buildings facing the High Street of Warwick
The Brethren were clothed in a traditional uniform of Tudor hat and black gown.  This is adorned with a silver badge of the “Bear and Ragged Staff” device of the Dudley family surmounted by an earl’s coronet, reputedly given by Queen Elizabeth I to each of the twelve founding Brethren.












 











 The historic group of buildings which now comprise the Hospital is dominated by the ancient Chapel of St James the Great, built over the West gate into the town of Warwick.
The original chapel was built by Roger de Newburgh, the second Norman earl of Warwick in 1126.  It was used by travellers departing from, and returning to, the town.  Roger’s wife died quite young and so it became a Chantry Chapel in which the priests celebrated the Mass for the repose of her soul.
Under a licence issued by King Richard II on 20th April 1383 was created the Guild of St George.  In 1386 Thomas Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, granted the benefice of the Chapel to the Guild and rebuilt it.  The tower was added and the gate underneath was extended.
Some time between then and 1413, the Guilds of the Holy Trinity and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, previously based at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, moved to the site and accommodation for the Guilds and the resident priests was erected together with reception, meeting and dining halls.  They became known as the United Guilds of Warwick.
In 1860 an extensive restoration was undertaken by Sir Gilbert Scott whose representative was summoned from his dinner in the nearby village of Barford by anxious townsfolk who feared that the chapel was about to collapse into the road beside it.















 

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