Spital-in-the-Street is a small hamlet in the

West Lindsey West Lindsey is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England. Its council is based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Gainsborough, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Caistor and M ...

district of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. It is situated on the

A15 road This is a list of roads designated A15. Entries are sorted in alphabetical order by name of country. * A015 road (Argentina), a road connecting the junction with National Route 14 at La Criolla and the Salto Grande Dam access-road * ''A15 road (A ...

(

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...

), north from Lincoln, east from Gainsborough, and north from the A15 and A631 crossroad at Caenby Corner. Nearby villages include Hemswell to the west, Glentham to the east, and Glentworth to the south-west.

History

Spital-in-the-Street lies on

, a Roman road that runs in a straight line for between Lincoln and the

Humber Estuary The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Trent, Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms ...

, passing through no villages north from Lincoln until Broughton away. The first part of its name, "Spital", comes from the ancient

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

for the poor which was situated here, having its origins in a

Hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

age.

Hermits A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

, or 'Eremites' dwellers in the ''eremos'' or

wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...

, sometimes placed their Hermitages in remote spots, often on

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

, to extend hospitality to travellers. The

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

attached to the hermitage was dedicated to St Edmund. Edward II granted a licence for land and rent to be appropriated by the

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of Tealby for the payment of the

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

; and by a document signed at Tealby in 1323 and witnessed by nearly all the dignitaries of

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, also called Lincoln Minster, and formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, is a Church of England cathedral in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Lincoln and is the Mo ...

the foundation was placed under the jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter. Ten years later the hermitage was called “Spital-on-the-Street” so its use had probably already been enlarged, although there is no documentary evidence of this. All that is known is the building of a house for the Chaplain by John of Harrington in 1333. A fair and a market were inaugurated in 1324. In 1396

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), and Joan, Countess of Kent. R ...

granted to Thomas de Aston,

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of Lincoln, leave to build a house "adjoining the west side of the chapel for the residence of William Wyhom the Chaplain and of certain poor persons there resident and their successors", and before the end of the 14th century it had buildings sufficient for these poor persons. It escaped

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

’s dissolution of the monasteries only to be later seized by

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

for the Crown and sold. The Sessions for the Kirton division of Lindsey were for many years held in the chapel, but it fell into disrepair and was pulled down by Sir William Wray in 1594 with a new Session's House built nearby. In 1660 Robert Mapletoft of

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

was appointed Sub-Dean of Lincoln Cathedral and also Master of the Spital Hospital; he rebuilt the chapel in 1661 and set about improving the hospital's revenues. By the mid-19th century, the Charity Commissioners estimated the hospital's revenues to be £959 per year, although they said that most of this was being misappropriated. This money, a considerable amount, was eventually recovered and used to endow De Aston School in

Market Rasen Market Rasen ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The River Rase runs through it east to west, approximately north-east from Lincoln, England, Lincoln, eas ...

, to restore Lincoln Grammar School and pay the

alms Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving. Etymology The word ''alms'' come ...

of four neighbouring parishes.Stopp, Peter. ''Bishop Norton - A Lincolnshire Parish History''. Bishop Norton Village Hall Committee, 1986, p.5 The chapel was restored in 1864 but by the end of the 19th century the hospital had been abandoned and only the chapel remained, falling ever further into dereliction until being restored once again in the 1990s.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Hamlets in Lincolnshire West Lindsey District