Monument record 10860 - Hospital of St Giles

A leper hospital dedicated to St. Giles' which stood in the township of Boughton. The founder is usually said to have been Ranulph III, earl of Chester but the hospital possibly existed before 1181. The inmates of the hospital claimed extensive privileges, which included a toll on all food bought for sale in Chester and a fishing boat on the Dee. The hospital also came to possess land and rents in and near Chester and, although the names of the original benefactors seldom survive, some of the property probably came to the hospital with new inmates.

The relations of the hospital with the citizens of Chester and the monks of St. Werburgh's were not always happy. Around 1300 the masters were involved in legal disputes concerning detention of rents, tolls or alms, the Dee fishery, and usury. The tolls claimed by the hospital on all victuals bought for sale in Chester were particularly resented by the tenants of St. Werburgh's abbey. In 1353 the right of the proctors of the hospital to demand tolls from the tenants of the abbey was referred to the county court and in the following year the abbot objected to the arrest of his tenants for refusing to pay tolls when they had no obligation to make any contribution to the hospital. The privilege of collecting the tolls was still being claimed in 1499 and exercised in 1537 when the city authorities pointed out that, whereas the privilege had originally been granted to relieve the sick, the inmates of the hospital were able-bodied; it was ordered that admissions should be confined to the sick of the city of Chester on penalty of loss of the market tolls.

By the 16th century the inmates lived in individual houses and kept animals on the land around the hospital. The hospital escaped dissolution under the Act of 1547, probably because of its charitable activities. By the early 17th century the cottages which made up the hospital seem to have become heritable properties. The hospital and its privileges did not survive the Civil Wars as its position in the suburbs of Chester was vulnerable. On 20 July 1643 the Chester garrison set fire to the hospital barns and pulled down the houses and 'the old chapel of Spital Boughton' with the stone barn next to it. In 1660 the restored Charles II granted to the mayor and citizens of Chester all the lands of 'the hospital or late hospital of Boughton, otherwise Spittle Boughton’. The hospital stood on the southern side of Christleton Road behind West Mount and the site, in a disused graveyard, was marked by an inscription in 1935 (1).

The site of a leper hospital at the eastern end of Forest Street, Spital Broughton, dedicated to St Giles’. The hospital and chapel were completely destroyed during the siege of Chester in 1645. The site is still used as churchyard (2).
The hospital was founded in the thirteenth century (3 (original source 4)). The hospital stood on the south side of Christleton Road behind west mount, and the site, in a disused grave yard. There is no trace of foundations in the area (3).

In 1935 an unknown donor placed on the wall of the old disused cemetery, at the spot known as Broughton Fountain, a tablet, recording the sites history. It bears the inscription :
"St. GILES CEMETERY."
Here stood the Leper Hospital and Chapel of St. Giles, founded early in the 12th Century and endowed by successive Norman Earls of Chester. They remained in constant use until 1645, when defensive measures during the siege of Chester necessitated the demolition of buildings outside the City Walls. The Cemetery remained to mark the site, and in time the little village of spital clustered round it. In 1644 the Royalist defenders suffered great loss of life in a gallant sortie in Boughton, and many of the fallen are buried here. It was also used for victims of the plagues which ravaged the city in the 16th and 17th centuries. Being extra parochial, Charles II granted the site to the Corporation in 1685 as a burial ground, and though for a period in the charge of St. John's Parish, it remains in their hands. When the Protestant martyr, George Marsh, was burnt at the stake on Gallow's Hill close by, his ashes were collected by his friends and buried here. The last burial took place in legend—"SIG. INFIRMORUM DE CESTRIA."
Below the inscription there is a representation of the seal of the Leper Hospital, a Paschal Lamb supporting a Cross. On the rear of the tablet, on the Cemetery side, there is a further inscription. This is based on a seal attached to a deed held at the British Museum.
"Many unknown are buried here, notably the Lepers from the 12th Century to 1643, soldiers who fell in the Battle of Great Boughton, 1644, and numerous victims of the Plagues"
and at the foot, "May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all ever more." (6).

The retaining wall of cemetery dates from the early 12th century, periodically repaired. Coursed red sandstone rubble. Oval in plan. 36 x 24m, approx 1.6m high. The side to Christleton Road is almost straight. The wall is battered (8).

It is recorded that the cemetery holds not only those interred during the life of the hospital but also plague victims from the city and well over a hundred Royalist soldiers killed nearby during a battle in 1644. (9)

<1> Harris, B.E. (ed), 1987, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume I, vol. 3 p.178-180 Harris B 1980 (Book). SCH3556.

<2> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Ormerod G 1882 vol.1 p.352 (Book). SCH1389.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ46 NW 31 & 88/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

<4> Knowles, D & Hadcock, RN, 1953, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, p.263 (Book). SCH2177.

<5> Clay R M, 1910, Medieval Hospitals of England, p.282 (Monograph). SCH2155.

<6> Chester Courant, 1878-1990, The Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd Series vol.XXX No.6610 Bennett J H E 1936 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH3105.

<7> Morris, Rupert H (Rev.), 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet & Tudor Reigns, p.156-157 (Book). SCH946.

<8> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 469931 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<9> Chester Local History, 1996-Present, Chester Local History News, Summer 2008 (Newsletter). SCH4494.