The Secrets Of The Hospital Of St Cross | And Why There Are No Patients!

[Music] today I'm exploring one of Britain's most extraordinary medieval buildings on the outskirts of Winchester it is the hospital Ascent cross and arms House of noble poverty this is a site which is operated since the 12th century so it's absolutely packed with history from all ages we're going to be looking at everything from medieval graffiti to ward off evil spirits to a changing room used by King Philip of Spain and it's all being brought exclusively to you on the history Hit YouTube channel so without further Ado these are the secrets of the hospital of Saint cross Our Story begins during some of England's Darkest Days in the middle of the 12th century as the two rival contenders Stephen and Matilda forced to assert their claim to the throne the country was plunged into Civil War and with it came a widespread breakdown in law and order it was a time which became known as the Anarchy around this time one nobleman called Henry of blah who was the brother of Stephen the claimant to the throne was walking here alongside the river itchin just outside the city of Winchester Legend has it that as he was walking he was stopped by a young peasant girl she begs Henry to help her people who were starving and the parallel of this young girl with the Virgin Mary was not lost on Henry he was greatly moved by her plight and a little further along the river when he came across the ruins of an old religious house which had been destroyed by the Danes he made a promise there and then he vowed to build a foundation to help the poor and needy whether or not this Legend is wholly true we will never be sure but we do know about Henry of blah and we know that he was very young very wealthy and very powerful some might say he was quite a cat he was appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1129 at the age of 28 and he did indeed establish a charitable institution here between 1132 and 1136 it was known as the hospital of Saint cross and it is said to be England's oldest charitable institution still in use the hospital was a hospital in the older sense of the word meaning a charitable institution not a medical facility it was to provide lodgings and food for 13 poor men so frail they were unable to work it's thought that they chose 13 to represent Christ and his 12 disciples [Music] the charter of Foundation red 13 men feeble and so reduced in strength that they can scarcely or not at all support themselves without other Aid shall remain in the same Hospital constantly and besides those 13 poor men 100 other poor persons as deserving as can be found shall be received at the hour of dinner and so the hospital also served as a way station for pilgrims on their way to Canterbury anyone who requested it at the Porter's gate was entitled to a wayfarer's dole the custom originated with a monk from Clooney in France who came across the Winchester and worked here it was the Norman Clooney to give Bread and Wine to Travelers and in turn the hospital of Saint cross adopted the idea and anglicized it so instead of a taste that of French wine you were given English Beer and the tradition continues to this very day cheers Mmm delicious the buildings Within These Walls are where the Brethren lived and still due to this very day the 13 men became known as the brothers of Saint cross then as now they were not monks since cross is not a monastery but a secular foundation with a church attached in the medieval period it was endowed with land Mills and Farms providing food and drink to support the poor at the gates [Music] the official name of this place is the hospital of scent cross and the arms House of noble poverty and that's because there are actually two ancient charitable foundations here which have merged over time the brothers from the two foundations are named the black brothers and the red Brothers so first there was the hospital of Saint cross which was founded right at the start of 1132 by Henry abroir now brothers from this Foundation are called the black Brothers for they wear a black robe a black trench hat and a silver badge in the shape of the Cross of Jerusalem but later on in 1445 Cardinal Henry Beaufort became Bishop of Winchester he was the son of John of gaunt and his mistress Catherine swinford which made him the half-brother King Henry IV and he became most well known for his involvement in the trial of Joan of Arc for many years Beaufort had a reputation as an ambitious and unscrupulous Statesman in fact Shakespeare summed it up by describing his whole time on Earth as a monstrous life foreign but it seems Beaufort may have softened in old age for when he was Bishop of Winchester he founded the Brethren of the order of noble poverty these were the brothers red and they wear deep red gowns and hats and a silver Cardinals badge this was for noble men who men who hard time perhaps their castle roof had fallen in or they could no longer afford to line their velvet cloak with Urban Noble poverty indeed you can see Cardinal Beaufort outside the Porter's Lodge as this weathered statue in fact this three-story Tower is Beaufort Tower built around 1450 one of the most exciting things about the hospital is that it's absolutely covered in Ancient Graffiti not far from Beaufort tower on this entrance Gateway are some intersecting Compass drawn circles this is thought to be an astronomical drawing showing the movement of the planets with each of the circles representing their Journeys we think it represents a copernican diagram with the Sun at the center rather than earlier medieval diagrams which showed the Earth at the center but who do it or why it's here remains a mystery today graffiti is seen as pretty anti-social and not something the church would encourage but it wasn't always like that during the Middle Ages graffiti appears to have been acceptable as people carved it out to seek protection from Evil so as you'll discover the hospital of Saint cross is covered with inscriptions and carvings these are the arms houses where the brothers live today these were built by Cardinal Beaufort in the 15th century there's space for 25 Brothers in total each of whom is given his own flat so you're either on the ground floor or the first floor each of the flats has a sitting room a bedroom a kitchen a bathroom and most importantly a separate loo so who gets to live here well the rules are pretty strict Brothers must be male they must be single widowed or divorced and over 60 years of age and preferences given to those most in need they have to go to daily morning prayers and during that they have to wear their robes so none of these silly pink dresses hmm time for lunch [Music] this is the Brethren's Hall which was built in the 14th century it had to be big enough to feed the Brethren and 100 poor men foreign it's got this Timber screen with a gallery above from which are hanging these wonderful Elizabethan fire buckets and it leads you up to a splendid arch of braced Timber roof in the center is the central half and then a dice up here is when the master dining with the Brethren and then this wooden staircase led to the Masters room so he could make a grand arrival or crawl back up to his rooms perhaps foreign this was installed because it was the arms of Bishop Fox who was the master here in the 15th century a pelican was a common symbol of selflessness as it would said a pelican mother would make the ultimate sacrifice by tearing her own flesh from her chest to feed her offspring up here we've got the coat of arms of cardinal Beaufort but what you'll notice is it's got a blue and white checkered border and this indicated that he was born out of wedlock and it's this practice this symbolism that gives us the phrase a checkered past each of the brothers was required to make their own chair using botching a traditional wood turning craft which used green and seasoned wood and this one's even chiseled out a little message in Newsome senioris fracturers it reads in Latin for the use of an older brother [Music] these were the kitchens and it must have been a pretty busy place because there was a lot of food to prepare on feast days during the restoration period it was recorded the Brethren have a sirloin of beef roasted weighing 46 Pounds and a half and three large mince pies and Plum broth and three joints of mutton for their supper and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary dinner and six quarts and one pint of beer after dinner by the Fireside six quarts and a pint at supper and the like after supper and on Wednesdays before shrove Tuesdays at dinner every brother half a pancake and this is the most important room of the whole site this is the cellar where they stored all the beer the water here was unfit for drinking so they had no choice but to drink copious amounts of Beer and Ale see the Middle Ages wasn't all bad but in the center of it all is the oldest and most magnificent part of the site the church which is more like a Norman cathedral in miniature it's certainly a lot bigger than the typical arms house chapel and as the walls are over one meter thick they used a lot of materials local Flint was combined with stone brought in from Cannes in France Dorset and the Isle of Wight and look at this the mark of hundreds of years of Brethren's footsteps they kicked off the building Works in 1135 which you can see in this chancel this is typically Norman with rounded arches and windows and all of these wonderful zigzags they call this a Chevron design but as they continued building the church the architectural Fashions and styles changed so you'll notice at this end of the church which was built later it's in a Gothic style with pointed arches so art historians call this a transitional Norman Church the reason that medieval Cathedrals made the jump from rounded to pointed archers was because the pointed sheep was Stronger it could hold more weight so instead of having really thick walls of solid stone with tiny Windows the pointed arches could provide the structural support leaving the rest of the wall to be thinner or even as a stained glass window [Music] when they were building this church they did something really quite clever on this pillar is a cross and their Stone surround is precisely angled so that on two days of the year the sun streams Through the Windows and falls directly on it those two days are the 3rd of May the day of the Church calendar for the invention of the Cross and the 14th of September the Holy Cross day [Music] these are so-called Daisy wheels or hexafoils they're Compass draw motive some of which have these six petal shapes inside they were made as protection against evil spirits and the devil and are often found around doors or Windows to stop evil entering a building for many churches such as this the 16th century was a turbulent time many were destroyed or damaged in the dissolution of the monasteries a result of Henry VII split with the Catholic church in Rome luckily the church survived the Reformation period pretty much unscathed but there was a bit of a shake-up with the rules it seemed that people have been taking advantage of all the charitable freebies given out and it was time to call it to an end in no case Sal such arms be afforded it was declared to strong robust and indolent mendicants like so many that wonder about such places those useless burdens upon the Earth who ought rather to be driven away with staves once more any remnants of papacy were thrown to the dogs the Apostles Creed was to be read in English and it was stated the master or president shall not exhibit relics images or miracles in the choir area is this 16th century wooden prayer desk which is covered in graffiti some of it is very elaborately carved and lists the members of the clergy and community of Saint cross including John Watson the master in fact Arthur Conan Doyle lived nearby here was known to have visited synth cross and so it said that this guy Watson was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes's sidekick I love this engraving of a stagecoach drawn by horses with what looks like a Highwayman pointing a pistol at it holding the journey up pretty exciting for a quiet stall this lectern dates from the 19th century it's got this peculiar design with a parrot's head on an eagle's body to remind the congregation that the word of the Lord should not be recited parrot fashion but of what I love here is this Mark because it shows that this was basically an Ikea lectern it was delivered in several parts and the Brethren had to piece it together when it arrived if we head up the tower there's evidence of the turbulence of the English Civil War the part of the war a parliamentarian battery was based on the nearby Hill and the Brethren were required to come up the tower and be on Lookout Duty so this space up here is taking us above the Nave and below the roof which you can see here very cobwebby now you won't be surprised to hear that looking at a hill was quite a boring job and so many of the Brethren spent their time procrastinating even doodling on the walls with this rather fine graffiti and what looks like this kind of weird moonscape is actually the roof of the North transept gotta bring your hiking gear up here and here it is the big Bell and up we go to the heavens so here we are on the roof of the hospital St cross and you get some pretty Splendid views here of the town you can see Winchester Cathedral just above there and down here you can see the brethrens lodgings and from here you realize there's a perfectly manicured lawns [Music] and here's the flagpole which apparently used to be part of a ship's mask Ahoy [Music] another strange Quirk to the story of the hospital is that King Henry VII ordered the Brethren to pray for the health of his Queen Anne Berlin in September 1535 only to execute her the following spring ironically almost 500 years later scenes showing Anne Berlin at archery practice in the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall were filmed here in these beautiful gardens and of course it was in Winchester at the Cathedral where Mary the first queen of England and Philip of Spain were married on the 25th of July 1554. after staying in Southampton for a few days and making Mary with the most illustrious Knights of the realm Philip headed for Winchester accompanied by 3 000 horses and the great guard of arches and crossbowmen all the Pomp and pageantry you'd expect but as Philip arrived in Winchester he got a good taste of English weather and faced torrential rain before he entered the city he needed to get changed into his wedding outfit so he stopped off at the hospital of Saint cross just outside the city walls and came into this room the tower room it was in here that he changed into a black velvet tunic adorned with gold braiding white velvet breeches and jacket and a doublet of satin A fitting outfit to marry the Queen of England and the beauty of the hospital setting has captured the imagination of many visitors over the years including the English romantic poet John Keats who arrived in Winchester from the Isle of Wight on the 12th of August 1819. Keats was inspired by these idyllic surroundings and as he retrolled the path here of Henry of bra all those years before he conjured up what is considered one of the most perfect short poems of the English language too Autumn seasons of Mists and mellow fruitfulness close bosom friend of the maturing Sun conspiring with him how to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch Eaves run so there you have it one of the most fascinating and beautiful medieval buildings in the country if you enjoyed this video click subscribe so you don't miss the next one thanks so much for watching

Channel: History Hit

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Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, hospital of st cross, st cross hospital, winchester, medieval hospital, red brothers, black brothers, medieval orders, alice loxton history hit, alice loxton history, alice loxton youtube, alice loxton historian, medieval history, medieval winchester, secret history, hospital middle ages, almshouses history, st cross, religious orders, medieval charity, history hit youtube channel, history hit alice loxton, history hits youtube

Id: 0mIi9l3EQ-U

Length: 19min 13sec (1153 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 16 2022