Summary

The buried remains of the Hospital of St Mary Magdelene, first recorded in 1225. The hospital was merged with a second, c1251, St John the Baptist, becoming the Hospital of St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdelene.

Source: Historic England

Details

Principal elements: the scheduled area includes the buried remains of the Hospital of St Mary Magdelene, first recorded in 1225. In about 1251 the hospital was merged with a second, St John the Baptist, becoming the Hospital of St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdelene.

Description: the area occupied by St John’s Farm in the early C21 represents just over half of its extent as shown on Speed’s map of 1610/11. The scheduled area occupies just under 1.5 hectares of land to the south-east of St John’s Road, Ely, defined to the north-east and north-west by roads, and to the east by later property boundaries. To the north-east, a Grade II listed wall (NHLE 1167908) marks the boundary of the site, turning the corner for a short distance along St John’s Road. This is constructed of stone rubble, with some ashlar, with brickwork forming the upper courses of the east end. This fabric is presumably recycled from hospital buildings, but original material may survive in the footings of the wall. The base of a pier is set into the wall on the inside, close to the Grade I listed Dove House (NHLE 1331739). The remainder of the boundary with St John’s Road is marked by a modern timber fence, and this is not included in the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included.

Almost the whole of the site is under pasture and gardens, and contains two discrete building complexes. To the north, this includes the two-storey service building, the dove house and St John's Farmhouse, all of which contain medieval fabric, although the farmhouse and dove house are later constructs. The south barn is the only surviving medieval building in that complex. Both the south barn and northern service building are now used for storage. These structural remains, combined with both documentary accounts of the hospital at the time of its merger with St John’s and with the plan of the C17 or early C18, allow for a possible reconstruction of the layout of the northern complex. The complex to the south is less well-documented, and is more difficult to reconstruct but would have included a wider complex of buildings to support the hospital, the remains of which are highly likely to survive archaeologically.

The two-storey stone service building 'Barn to the north of St John's farmhouse': the plan of the C17 or early C18 shows three ranges apparently representing the north, east and south sides of a cloister. Of these, only part of the north range survives, and is thought to represent three bays of the infirmary hall. This is constructed largely of rubble and Barnack stone, and is substantially of C16 construction, the east and west elevations with crow stepped gables. The north elevation has a blocked C13 arcade, buttressed between the arches and at the west end, but the stonework used to construct the buttresses and to infill the arches contains none of the evidently recycled material seen in the other three elevations. This may indicate that the alterations to the building for domestic use was undertaken over two phases, with the blocking of the arcade dating to before the dissolution. The conversion created two storeys, with a two-light, mullioned window inserted into both the ground and first-floor of each blocked bay of the arcade, the upper windows set directly beneath the apex of the arches. The ground-floor window to the east is the exception, and has a wider and deeper opening, with a relieving arch over. It has three internal mullions, its lower part bricked-up, and has timber louvres rather than glazed casements.

The reconstruction of the three other walls may be contemporary with the addition of the hall to the south, and of a second domestic range to the east. Although there is no evidence in the stonework of the two-storey hall building and porch in the south wall, there is a C16 timber-framed door with a four-centred arch towards the east end of the ground floor, in the same position as the porch door. A stone piscina is set into the wall above the door. An opening, blocked with brick, to the south end of the first floor of the east elevation, may have given access to the long gallery described in the early plan. Amongst other reused stonework, the east gable end contains fragments of the piers of an internal arcade, either recycled from further bays of the north arcade, or perhaps from the arcade of a south aisle.

Interior: the ground floor originally contained two rooms divided by a timber stud partition covered in wattle and daub. Both have an axial beam, chamfered and stopped at both ends, running east and west from a ceiling beam above the stud partition wall. In the east room a short beam containing mortices for joists extends north from the axial beam. A mortice in the same position on the opposite side of the axial beam suggests there was also a beam to the south. This room contains a fireplace to the east end which has been altered for more recent domestic use, perhaps in the late C19 or early C20, and is a brick structure containing a large copper for washing clothes.

A few glazed floor tiles beneath the cill of the door connecting the east and west rooms, may represent the original floor of the infirmary hall. The door has a timber frame with a four-centred arch. Part of the east room has been partitioned off to create a coal store. In the east wall is a fireplace with a timber bressumer with an arched upper profile. The brickwork to the back of the fireplace is laid in a chevron pattern and does not appear to be fire-blackened. This is compatible with the room’s former use as a dairy, as described on the early plan, but the form of the fireplace suggests the room had been originally intended for polite domestic use.

The first-floor is reached by a staircase in the east room. Formerly two rooms, it consists of a single open space, and has a principal rafter roof without a ridge piece, and with collars and staggered purlins. Substantial repairs to the roof were undertaken in the 1980s . In the north wall plasterwork has fallen away to reveal two of the arches of the C13 arcade at the point where their shafts spring from head corbels. To the east is brick backed fireplace with a substantial chamfered bressumer, with an arched upper profile similar to the ground floor west fireplace. To the south is a timber framed doorway with four centred arch. This opens onto a brick backed alcove, visible as a blocked opening in the east elevation. To the north is a window with three arched lights, the two outer lights infilled with brick. The east end contains a large, centrally placed opening with moulded surround, formally a window, now blocked, to the south of which is an inserted opening containing double timber doors. This is thought to be in the position of the former fireplace.

If the original use of this building was as an infirmary, further bays to the east are likely to have included the chancel or chapel, with the cloister attached to the south. Of the other buildings described in the rule of 1303, the refectory and dormitory are likely to have formed part of the claustral ranges to the south, which may have included the master’s lodging: a plan of the Great Hospital, Norwich (founded 1249) shows the master’s lodging next to the dormitory, in the north corner of the cloister. Alternatively, the master may have been separately accommodated, as he was by the late C14. Speed’s sketch map of 1607 shows a gatehouse to the north, giving access from West End, and a second to the south, and archaeological evidence of these is likely to survive. Other significant elements of the hospital will include the burial ground for lay and clerical brethren: if this was to the east, within the area described as an orchard on the C17 or early C18 plan, and also on Ordnance Survey maps of the C19, only a small part will lie within the area under assessment, with the remainder in the C20 housing development to the east. However, its location may be elsewhere within the proposed scheduled area.

South Barn 'Barn to the south-west of St John's farmhouse': the complex to the south includes only one building that retains medieval fabric: this dates to the early C13 and appears to predate the structures in the complex to the north-east. Although traditionally described as a chapel, it may have served as an infirmary building as part of an earlier and smaller hospital, prior to merger. The building is rectangular in plan, of four bays, built of stone rubble, and with a later hipped roof. The north elevation has four high level narrow lancet windows, all blocked with brick, with ashlar stone surrounds, and also a C13 pointed arched doorway, also blocked. Above the arch is a stone carved to represent a man with a horn and an ox. A later door has been added further to the east. The south elevation contains a full height cart door, immediately to the west of which is a high level square window, also a later insertion. Further to the west is an original opening, similar to and opposite the entrance from the north. The west elevation had a single, high-level window, its presumed arch truncated by the later roof. The east elevation contains the outer jambs of two high-level windows, also with arches truncated. Most doors and windows have splayed reveals on the inside. The roof structure is modern.

About 25m to the south of the barn a map generated by a Lidar survey shows a substantial linear feature, probably a boundary ditch. This separates the hospital from medieval common fields to the south, surviving as two furlongs of ridge and furrow, set at a right-angle to each other. Both the ditch and ridge and furrow are clearly visible on the ground and on satellite imagery. The Lidar image also shows a square or trapezoidal enclosure with an area of about 0.20 hectares, partly overlying the boundary ditch.

Extent of scheduling: the scheduled area is defined by the boundary with West End to the north, and by St John’s Road to the west and north-west. Where the wall survives, it follows its outer edge. To the west, south and east the site is defined by the boundary between it and late-C20 housing and other development.

Exclusions: the above-ground buildings including: service building to the north (possibly the former infirmary building: NHLE 1126455), the barn to the south-west (NHLE 1126456), the C17 dove house (NHLE 1331739) and C18 farmhouse (NHLE 1167882) are best managed through their Grade I listed status and are not therefore included in the scheduling. However, the ground beneath all these structures is included in the scheduling. The relatively modern agricultural buildings north-east of the barn known as St John's Chapel (NHLE 1126456), C20 fences and modern path surfaces are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath all these features is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The site of the medieval Hospital of St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdelene, 1225, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period: it represents a category of monument: medieval hospitals, about 1000 of which are known to have existed before the Reformation. This type of monument is poorly understood;

* Rarity: not all sites of hospitals identified from documentary sources are known, and the presence of identifiable structures preserved in the context of buried hospital remains is rare;

* Documentation: the hospital of St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdalene is well documented in written records dating from the merger of the two formerly separate foundations in the mid C13. These add considerably to our knowledge of the history of the hospital and to our understanding of the nature and range of buildings and structures that would have occupied the site;

* Group value: the scheduled area has a very strong group value with the four Grade I listed buildings, and the Grade II 'Wall to St John's Farm', all of which are understood to contain medieval fabric. Together they form a historically coherent group which reflect changes to the status and use of the site over 800 years;

* Survival / condition: the buried archaeological deposits of hospital buildings, the burial ground for brethren and the hospital’s boundary ditch are highly likely to survive in good condition, within this relatively undisturbed urban context;

* Fragility / vulnerability: the historic fabric of the upstanding buildings is subject to damage and decay, while buried archaeology is vulnerable to ground works of any description. The good preservation of both is vital to further research and analysis, and this is best secured through the protection afforded by both scheduling for the below ground remains and listing for the upstanding buildings.

* Potential: the scheduled area has the potential, through both non-invasive and invasive analysis, to increase our understanding of the history of the hospital, the development of the site and its buildings as well as details of the domestic lives of its occupants. Although the hospital is well-documented, little is known about its role as an infirmary and who it served, and buried archaeological remains are the most likely source of this type of knowledge, through the survival and analysis of artefacts and environmental evidence.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Cobbett, L, Palmer, W. M, 'The Hospitals of St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdelene at Ely and the Remains of Gothic Buildings still to be seen there at St John’s Farm' in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, , Vol. 36, (1936), 58-108
Websites
Pugh, R. H, ed 2002. A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4: City of Ely; Ely, N and S Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds pp. 28-33 British History on Line, accessed 24th September 2016 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4
Salzman L F,1948. Hospitals: A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 2: Hospitals of St Mary Magdelene and St John pp. 308-310 , accessed 24th September 2016 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol2

Source: Historic England