Monument record 130/2 - St Leonard's Leper Hospital

Leper hospital founded prior to 1280. It was united with the Hospital of St James and St John in circa 1417. The precise location of the hospital has not been identified.

{1} The Leper hospital dedicated to St Leonard was founded pre 1280. A warden and brethren were recorded in 1309. In 1417 it was united to the hospital of Sts James and John in Brackley.

{2} The actual site of the hospital is unlocated.

{3} The distance from St James' Church to St Leonard's was half a mile.

{4} The Hospital of St. Leonard, for the sick, infirm and for lepers is first mentioned in a deed of 1250, though it is likely to have been founded somewhat earlier. In 1250 a house with a croft in St Peters parish is described as lying ‘at the head of the Old Town towards the Hospital of St Leonard’. It seems likely that this croft is in the area of Old Town Paddocks as this was in 1830 the highest, most westerly part of the Old Town. In 1280 the Leper Hospital is described as being ‘extra Brackle’ when Elena le Zouche granted 10 marks rent in Brackley to the hospital to support 2 chaplains. The northern most part of the town recorded in 1760 lay beyond the borough boundary stone. Bridges states that it lay outside the town about half a mile from St James'. An anonymous 18th century history of the town reports that 'there was formerly a church dedicated to St. Andrew which stood near the upper end of the town on the west side the site of the tower seemed to me distinguishable some years ago when I visited it.' This presumably represents the site of St. Leonard's, though there has been a confusion of dedication with that of the former chapel at nearby Halse. The two hospitals in Brackley were united in the 15th century and thus it seems likely that the College might still own the land of St Leonards. There was only one College tenement in the area in 1760. In 1869 Green reported that the hospital stood near the toll gate at the north end of the town, saying it ‘must have been earlier (than 1280) by a single relique of it, now in Mr Nicholl's garden, which has two lancets under one semicircular arch - apparently about 1200.’ In 1830 the inclosure award lists the tenement owned by J.Nichols, and in 1839 a Mr Nichols is listed as owning an adjacent property, the same property that the College had owned in 1760. This then may prove to be the site of the medieval leper hospital.
The omission of the hospital however from the 15th and 16th century town rentals is almost certainly because it lay in the old town. These rentals can be mapped with a high degree of accuracy by reference to later maps, and all the plots to the north of the Halse Road on the west side of the High Street are identified as burgage tenements. This would indicate that the Hospital cannot lie in this area as Leland saw the chapel of St. Leonard still standing in the 1540s. The only plot on the west side of the High Street not described in the rentals as a burgage tenement lay to the south of the Halse Road, again within the borough. As the Hospital lay outside the Borough it seems more likely that it lay on the east side of the High Street immediately north of St. Peter’s Road [at approx SP 5892 3759]. The hospital can thus not be located exactly but it is almost certain that the Almshouses, which lay immediately south of Halse lane in 1760, were not the successors to the Hospital, and evaluation trenching there in 1996 did indeed fail to find any trace of activity which might have been associated with a hospital.
In 1385 St. Leonard’s Hospital owned a shop, adjacent to one held by the Hospital of St. John (Location not in EUS text).

{8} The site of this hospital was not located. No relationship could be found between St Leonard's Hospital and the almshouses which were founded in 1633 (Pevsner {5})

{9} Sketch of window head from chapel;

<1> Knowles; Hadcock, 1971, Medieval Religious Houses England and Wales, p.257 (unchecked) (Book). SNN10192.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP53NE11 (unchecked) (Index). SNN443.

<3> HEARNE T., 1744, Collectanea (Leland J.), p.35 (unchecked) (Series). SNN44174.

<4> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Brackley, (unchecked) (Report). SNN106655.

<4> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Brackley, Section 3.3.3 Leper Hospital of St Leonard; Shops and Stalls (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100499.

<5> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<6> BARBER A., 1996, The Elms, Brackley, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Assessment, (unchecked) (Report). SNN40430.

<7> Jarvis, E. (Ed.), 2010-12, Hindsight: The Journal of Northamptonshire Association of Local History, Issue 18 p.44 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN108377.

<8> Colquhoun, FD, 1970, Field Investigator's Comments, F1 FDC 10-FEB-70 (Notes). SNN111540.

<9> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/36/11 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Feb 10 2025 7:11PM