The Leper Hospital - Winchester, Hampshire

Outside of the city boundaries of Winchester, in what is today known as Hospital Field, once stood the St Mary Magdalen Leper Hospital. Probably founded in around 1140 by Henry of Blois, the superb chapel was recorded in engravings as a ruin in the 17th century. Possibly complicating the search for the hospital, the entire field was used as an army camp during WWI, however, Time Team turns this to their advantage, as the medieval well that served the lepers was reused, with a wind pump, by the army camp, making it easier for geophysics to find. When the well is discovered, it uses up all the surveyor's tapes on hand, being more than 180 meters deep. Other trenches find the remains of the chapel, the Master's house, and the almshouses, as well as the cemetery, where a skull showing signs of leprosy is found. Within the chapel, an unusual double burial appears to be, as found in the records, the former Master of the hospital, followed almost 50 years later by his daughter. Victor sculpts a bust of a leper based on a skull excavated elsewhere. Nicholas Orme explains how lepers were viewed in the Middle Ages.