St Leonard's Hospital is a grade II* listed timber-framed building in

Tickhill Tickhill is a market town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. At the 2001 census it had a population of 5,301, reducing to 5,228 at the 2011 Census. Geography It l ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was originally constructed in the 15th century as a monastic building. The first hospital in Tickhill dedicated to Saint Leonard was on Spital Hill, a marshy location outside the built-up part of the town, considered suitable as accommodation for

leper Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

s. It was already in existence by 1225, when

Walter de Gray Walter de Gray (died 1 May 1255) was an English prelate and statesman who was Archbishop of York from 1215 to 1255 and Lord Chancellor from 1205 to 1214. His uncle was John de Gray, who was a bishop and royal servant to King John of England. Af ...

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

, deplored the decayed condition of the friars attending and called for charitable donations. The lepers were first mentioned in 1236, while from 1290, John Clarel attempted to improve conditions at the hospital.

David Hey David G. Hey (18 July 1938 – 14 February 2016) was an English historian, and was an authority on surnames and the local history of Yorkshire. Hey was the president of the British Association for Local History, and was a published author of seve ...

, ''A History of the South Yorkshire Countryside'', p.27 There has been scholarly debate as to whether this is the same foundation as that of St Thomas in the marsh, a cell of Humberston Abbey. In 1470, the hospital was relocated to the north side of Tickhill Market Place. An inscription above the door suggests that the rebuilding was the work of a John Leftwul.''The Gentleman's Magazine'', April 1844 The reasons for the move are unknown, but David Hey notes that this must have involved a change in purpose, as town centres were not considered suitable locations for lepers. The building eventually declined; by the 1840s, it was used as

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

s, but the facade was substantially intact. It was heavily restored in 1851, with the upper floor being completely rebuilt in a Gothic revival style. In 1898, it was purchased by the local parish church, who turned it into a parish meeting room. It was again restored in 2007. As it stands, the hospital has ten bays separated by wooden posts, carrying half-fan vaulting supporting an oversailing upper storey. The top floor has three distinctive windows with straight sides but pointed heads.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

and Enid Radcliffe, ''Yorkshire: The West Riding'', p.521 It was made a listed building in 1961 and is currently listed at grade II*.

References

External links

Tickhill Parish Room
{{coord, 53.43384, -1.10976, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 15th-century architecture Gothic Revival architecture in South Yorkshire Grade II* listed buildings in South Yorkshire Monasteries in South Yorkshire Timber framed buildings in Yorkshire Tickhill

See also

References

External links