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Summary

Hospital, originally a leper hospital in the 13th century. Out of use by the 18th century when a workhouse was built on the site.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX47SE/86

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• LEPER HOSPITAL (Early Medieval - 1066 AD to 1399 AD (Between))
• HOSPITAL (XVI - 1501 AD to 1600 AD (Between))

Full description

Wilkins, N., 12/12/1996, The Old Workhouse at Mount Ford, Tavistock (Correspondence). SDV350220.

Letter in reply to an enquiry about the old workhouse at Mount Ford, Tavistock. Attached is information mainly about the hospital which was previously on the site.

Windeatt, E., 1880, Some Religious Houses of Totnes, 460 (Article in Serial). SDV168930.

Lazar houses in Tavistock near the river.

Amery, J. S., 1924, (Presidential Address) The Ashburton of past days: its manners, customs and inhabitants, 63 (Article in Serial). SDV315287.

Finberg, H. P. R., 1947, The Borough of Tavistock: Its Origin and Early History, 144 (Article in Serial). SDV344360.

There was a Leper Hospital, a messuage and garden with liberty, near what was later known as Fitzford.

Hoskins, W. G., 1952, The Making of the Agrarian Landscape, 192-3 (Article in Monograph). SDV320933.

The hospital stood at the western extremity of the borough on the site of the tenements known lately as Old Workhouse Cottages. The lepers of La Forde paid 1 shilling 2 pence for their hospital in 1291, described as a 'messuage and garden, with liberty' near what was known later as Fitzford.

Clay, R. M., 1966, Medieval Hospitals of England, 262 (Monograph). SDV176564.

Dedicated to St Mary Magdalene and St Theobald.

Knowles, D. + Hadcock, R. N., 1971, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, 334, 397 (Monograph). SDV323253.

St Mary Magdalene leper hospital. Founded before 1244, apparently for lepers. Six men and six women recorded in the hospital in 1244. Virtually dissolved in 1585. Possibly an almshouse at some time.

Timms, S. C., 1976, The Devon Urban Survey, 1976. First Draft, 170 (Report - Survey). SDV341346.

The medieval leper hospital was situated on the main route out of town towards Plymouth. It was dated from before 1244. The site became that of a workhouse.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX47SE20 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV350217.

A leper house in Tavistock, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene and St Theobald. Md Hospitals of England, 1966, pg. 262.
At the western extremities of Tavistock, near Fitzford, on the site of the tenements known lately as Old Workhouse Cottages stood "the hospital of St Mary Magdalene of Tavistock". First named in 1244 it was intended for sufferers of leprosy. Devonshire Studies 1952 102-103 (Hoskins and Finberg).

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX47SE21 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV350218.

A hospital in Tavistock, dedicated to St George, was possibly founded in the early 16th century. Md Religious Houses 1935 312 (Knowles & Hadcock).
A hospital in Tavistock mentioned in the Parish Accounts of 1585. TDA 56 1924 63.

The Tavistock and District Local History Society, 1994, About Tavistock: An Historical Introduction and Six Town Walks, 37-8 (Monograph). SDV354806.

Orme, N. + Webster, M., 1995, The English Hospital 1070-1570 (Monograph). SDV350213.

Received regular donations from the Abbey, sums of £1.14.8 and £2.12.0. being recorded Tempus Richard II. If Finberg's conjecture is correct (that the Abbey paid 2 pence per leper per week) this would indicate a complement of four to six lepers by the late 14th century, when populations had fallen generally. In 1478 the patron saints were said to be St Mary and St Theobold, a dedication which was probably much earlier for Theobold seems to have been more popular pre-1300. In 1585 the parish authorities took control of the hospital. The prior and hospital brothers and sisters granted trusteeship to John Fitz and others for 1000 years. The hospital seems to have come to an end towards the end of the 18th century when a workhouse was built in its place. It is situated at the west end of the town, midway between the present cottage hospital and the Catholic church.

Exeter Archaeology, 1997, Archaeological Assessment of a Development at Mount Ford, Tavistock (Report - Assessment). SDV350212.

During the Middle Ages, lands which the hospital endowed were leased out by the prior. Description of lease (1585) includes reference to 'the mawdlyn chapell with the chappell haie to the same belonging.'. In the middle of the 18th century, a reply to a question in a parochial questionnaire concerning ruined chapels refers to one at the west end of town called 'Magdalen als Maudlin'. By 1753, a detailed plan of the borough shows no structures on three fields called Mawdlyn Ground, possibly too ruinous to depict. Scarcity and inconsistency of documentation make location of precise positions of medieval buildings difficult, but it seems clear that those of the hospital and chapel were in one of the three fields of Maudlyn Ground. Almost certainly cemetery in close proximity, possibly up to 360 burials within confines of site.

Dodd, M., 2004, Dean Milles Parochial Survey. Questionnaire (1747-1762) (Un-published). SDV162499.

Woodcock, G., Unknown, History of Tavistock, 31 (Monograph). SDV350215.

Stood on the east side of Maudlin's Lane where in the 19th century was to be the workhouse, which in the 20th century was to become Mount Ford. Its accompanying chapel lay to its south-west. In 1585 or at some point thereafter the institution ceased to be a hospital and became an almshouse.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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