Record Details

Summary

A listed early 16th century hospital built by Dr Thomas Milley for almswomen, which was a re-founding of an early 15th century hospital. Built on the course of the medieval town ditch.

Monument Type(s):

• HOSPITAL (Established, MEDIEVAL - 1424 AD to 1424 AD)
• ALMSHOUSE (Founded, Tudor - 1502 AD to 1504 AD)

Associated Events:

• EST740 - Tree-ring dating of timbers from Milley's Hospital, Lichfield, 2002. (NRHE Name - Milley's Hospital) (Ref: Report 109/2002)

Protected Status:

• Listed Building (II*) 1187347: Milley's Hospital

Full description

(9/1/03) The hospital was founded in 1424 but re-endowed by Thomas Milley, a residentiary canon of Lichfield, between 1502 and 1504. However, dendrochronology suggests that the main internal body of the rear wing of the structure was either rebuilt in 1652 or, less likely, subsequently - utilising reclaimed timber. Further extensive alterations were carried out in 1906. <1>
Milley's Hospital was recorded by The Lichfield Vernacular Building Survey circa 1986 <2>

[11/4/03] The almshouse in Lichfield now known as Dr Milley's Hospital seems to have been founded on property given by Bishop Heyworth in 1424 for the use of the poor. The bishop's grant makes no mention of the foundation of a hospital, but two circumstances suggest that Dr Milley's Hospital did originate in the bishop's benefaction and that it was therefore founded in 1424. First, Heyworth gave the property to the cathedral sacrist and the master of St Mary's Guild, and until recent years the sacrist has always had a special responsibility for Dr Milley's Hospital. Secondly, the property on which the hospital now stands - a long narrow piece of land running back from Beacon Street and curving south to the Leamonsley Brook - is almost certainly that which Heyworth gave in 1424. The ground seems once to have been a ditch which formed the town defences [see PRN 00192] between the north-west corner of the fortified Close and the bishop's fishponds. The ground floor of Dr Milley's Hospital is now well below the level of Beacon Street, and this is undoubtedly due in part to its situation in the town ditch. ... The hospital was re-endowed and probably re-built in 1502-4 by Thomas Milley, a canon residentiary of the cathedral. ... [a] number of alterations had been made in the 18th century. ... The general appearance of the hospital buildings has remained the same since alterations in 1906-7, though further restoration and repairs were carried out in 1953-4 and 1967-8 by J A Chatwin & Son of Birmingham. <3>

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